Ethiopian soldiers patrol Mekele’s streets in the northern Tigray region, following the city’s takeover during the crackdown on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
LONDON — A report by the U.S. think tank New Lines Institute has unearthed “grave violations” of international law and crimes against humanity committed throughout the Tigray War’s two-year span.
The study revealed a “solid basis” indicating that all sides involved in the strife perpetrated war crimes and “grave” infractions of international statutes. Ethiopian forces and their allies were implicated in “crimes against humanity” and “genocidal acts” aimed at the Tigrayan ethnicity, according to the findings.
“These genocidal actions encompass killings, infliction of severe physical and psychological harm, measures designed to prevent births, and deliberately creating life conditions to annihilate Tigrayans,” stated Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, senior director of New Lines Institute.
The Monday-published report aims to link “numerous and extensive” accounts of atrocities during the conflict with the U.N.’s Genocide Convention.
“These conclusions, derived from an extensive array of evidence, stress our collective legal duty as Geneva Conventions and Genocide Convention signatories to avert further atrocities in the region,” remarked former U.S. War Crimes Ambassador David Scheffer, who penned the report’s epilogue.
Evidence cited includes a speech by Daniel Kibret, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s social affairs advisor, which was found to overtly advocate for genocide against Tigrayans.
“We can only erase it,” Kibret stated about Tigray, in a speech that faced widespread condemnation, including from the U.S. government.
The report also quotes testimony from senior EU envoy Pekka Haavisto, who disclosed that he was informed in a private meeting attended by Prime Minister Ahmed that Ethiopia intended to “wipe out the Tigrayans for 100 years.”
“Survivors carry scars and trauma from a conflict that, despite a seeming halt to hostilities in 2022, did not forge a lasting peace,” said Ibrahim.
The report additionally presented a “solid basis” to assert that Ethiopia’s government weaponized starvation, a claim that Addis Ababa has refuted.
The Tigray War, concluded in November 2022, is notorious as one of the deadliest 21st-century conflicts, igniting merely a year after Ahmed received a Nobel Peace Prize for resolving a border skirmish with Eritrea.
Clashes broke out in November 2020 following Ahmed’s directive for a military offensive in Tigray, sparking after long-simmering frictions and an allegation that TPLF attacked a federal base nearby.
The conflict, pitting Ethiopian Federal Government forces and allies against TPLF and associated militias, eventually spread to neighboring areas. Researchers from Ghent University estimated the death toll to be as high as 378,000.
“Tigray was a harrowing episode, often overlooked, and talk of famine there once again surfaces,” said U.N. Relief Chief Martin Griffiths at a press briefing. An estimated 21.4 million people are projected to need humanitarian aid this year.
ABC News reached out to Ethiopia’s Federal Government for comment.
