The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday that her office had confirmed serious violations that could constitute “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, including by Eritrean troops.
In a statement, Michelle Bachelet stressed the urgent need for an independent inquiry into the situation in Tigray, which has been shaken by months of fighting. Her office had “managed to confirm information about some of the events that occurred in November last year, indicating an indiscriminate shelling in the towns of Mekele, Humera and Adigrat in the Tigray region.”
It had also verified “reports of serious human rights violations and abuses including massacres in Eritrea and in Dengelat in central Tigray by Eritrean armed forces,” it said. A preliminary analysis of the information showed that “serious violations of international law, possibly as a result of war crimes and crimes against humanity, may have been committed by several actors in the conflict,” the statement warned.
These actors included the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Eritrean Armed Forces and the Amhara Regional Forces and associated militias. “With multiple actors in the conflict, finger denial and finger pointing, there is a clear need for an objective, independent assessment of these reports,” Bachelet said.
She called on the Ethiopian government to give its office and other UN investigators access to Tigray “for the purpose of establishing facts and contributing to responsibility, regardless of the perpetrators’ involvement.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out that her office continued to receive information on ongoing fighting in particularly central Tigray. She lamented “deeply worrying reports of sexual and gender-based violence, extrajudicial killings, widespread destruction and looting of public and private property by all parties.”
“Without rapid, impartial and transparent investigations and holding those responsible accountable, I am afraid that violations will continue with impunity, and the situation will remain volatile for a long time to come,” she said.
Bachelet also expressed concern over the detention this week in Tigray of journalists and translators working for local and international media. While they were being released, she pointed to disturbing remarks by a government official that those responsible for “misleading international media” should be held accountable.
Tigray has been gripped by fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the TPLF and accused them of attacking federal army camps. Abiy – who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 – declared victory after pro-government troops captured the regional capital of Mekele in late November, although the TPLF promised to continue fighting and clashes have continued in the region.
The presence of Eritrean troops in the Tigray conflict has been extensively documented but has been denied by both countries.
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