The Ethiopian government previously said that some soldiers were put on trial for rape and killing. Prime Minister Abiy said Wednesday in a statement posted on Facebook that he accepted the report, despite “serious reservations,” adding that the findings “clearly established the claim of genocides as false and utterly lacking of any factual basis.” He also said a civil-military investigative unit would be established to follow up on the report’s allegations. She replied that, during the period of the investigation, “big numbers of the violations of human rights are linked to the Ethiopian and Eritrean defense forces, but we have seen that since the ceasefire there have been huge allegations of abuses by the Tigrayan forces and continue until today.”Įritrea refused to engage with investigators and, to date, has not responded to requests for a meeting, according to Bachelet.Īmong their recommendations to the Ethiopian government, the joint investigative team has called for investigations by “independent and impartial bodies” into alleged human rights violations and “to hold those responsible accountable.” Human Rights Watch, which has been calling for the UN Security Council to consider taking concrete action in response to the conflict, including targeted sanctions, said the report was “not an exhaustive account” of atrocities in Ethiopia, and called for a more robust, independent investigation into ongoing abuses.Īt a news conference on the report in Geneva, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet was asked pointedly whether she could attribute the majority of atrocities to one armed group or groups fighting in Tigray. It marks a dramatic escalation in the Tigray conflict, which has spilled over into ethnic violence in neighboring regions and has the potential to pull Africa’s second-most populous country apart.ĬNN uncovers evidence of torture, detention and execution in Tigray “We were made aware of a post by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister and removed this for violating our policies against inciting and supporting violence,” a spokesperson for Facebook-owner Meta Company said in a statement.Ībiy doubled down on that rhetoric in a speech at the Ethiopian military’s headquarters on Wednesday, where he pledged to bury his government’s enemies “with our blood and bones and make the glory of Ethiopia high again.”Īddis Ababa’s city administration was instructing residents on Wednesday to register their weapons and gather in local neighborhoods to “safeguard” their surroundings, Reuters reported.
The post was later taken down by Facebook. “Our people should march … with any weapon and resources they have to defend, repulse and bury the terrorist TPLF,” Abiy said in a Facebook post Sunday. Abiy has urged citizens to take up arms and fight the Tigrayan forces. The rapid advance of the fighters, who said Sunday they had seized two key towns on the road to Addis Ababa, has raised concerns among Ethiopia’s leaders that the capital could fall. The source added that the rebels had the firepower to be inside the city within hours, if they chose to be, but would prefer to wait for an agreement to be put in place. The OLA is an outlawed armed group from Oromia, the country’s most populous region. Here's what you need to know about the conflictĪ senior diplomatic source in Ethiopia told CNN on Wednesday that fighters from the Tigray Defense Force (TDF) and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) were on the outskirts of the capital.
(Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP) (Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images) EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP/AFP via Getty ImagesĮthiopia is at war with itself. Pro-government troops took the regional capital Mekele in late November but clashes have persisted in the region.
Tigray has been the theater of fighting since early November, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the northern region's former ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, accusing it of attacking federal army camps. A damaged tank stands on a road north of Mekele, the capital of Tigray on February 26, 2021.
0 kommentar(er)
