Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) say Amhara regional security forces and civilian authorities in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray zone have committed widespread abuses against Tigrayans since November 2020.
In a new report, ‘We Will Erase You From This Land’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone’, the organsiations noted that Ethiopian authorities have severely restricted access and independent scrutiny of the region.
The report documented how threats, unlawful killings, sexual violence, mass arbitrary detention, pillage, forcible transfer, and the denial of humanitarian assistance were used to expel Tigrayans civilians from Western Tigray.
Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been embroiled in a civil war with federal forces since November 2020 after the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked a key Ethiopian military base in the region.
In the ensuing months, newly-appointed administrators in Western Tigray and Amhara Special Forces – a regional paramilitary force – undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayan residents of the area, according to the report.
The report, based on 427 interviews and other research conducted between December 2020 and March 2022, found that Tigrayans were systematically targeted and expelled from Western Tigray by federal and allied forces.
‘Since November 2020, Amhara officials and security forces have engaged in a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing to force Tigrayans in Western Tigray from their homes’, Executive Director of HRW, Kenneth Roth, said.
‘Ethiopian authorities have steadfastly denied the shocking breadth of the crimes that have unfolded and have egregiously failed to address them’.
For her part, the Secretary General of AI, Agnès Callamard, urged the Ethiopian government and international partners to take decisive action to bring justice to Western Tigray.
‘The response of Ethiopia’s international and regional partners has failed to reflect the gravity of the crimes that continue to unfold in Western Tigray’, Callamard said.
‘Concerned governments need to help bring an end to the ethnic cleansing campaign, ensure that Tigrayans are able to safely and voluntarily return home, and make a concerted effort to obtain justice for these heinous crimes’.
The report called on the United Nations, the African Union, and Ethiopia’s international and regional partners to press for the immediate protection of all communities, including at-risk Tigrayan communities.
The rights organisations also recommended immediate demobilisation and disarmament of all abusive irregular forces from Western Tigray, such as Fano and other militias.
Source: Amnesty International
Photo source: UNHCR/Will Swanson
