Following the peace agreement between the government of Ethiopia and Tigray forces, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for ‘immediate and rigorous international monitoring’.
This, HRW said, should be done to avert further atrocities and a humanitarian catastrophe.
Intensified fighting in the Tigray region during the past two months has heightened fears of further rights abuses and caused large-scale displacement of civilians.
Nearly two years after the war began, the two main warring parties reached an agreement following ten days of African Union-led negotiations in South Africa.
According to the World Bank, conflicts in Ethiopia have resulted in loss of lives, humanitarian crises, destruction of private and public assets and have left communities in dire need of support.
Tigray and the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions have been badly affected by the devastating conflict.
Much of the Tigrayan population remains without access to desperately needed humanitarian assistance, which the Ethiopian government has largely blocked from the region.
‘The cessation of hostilities in northern Ethiopia after nearly two years of bloodshed is a critical moment to end atrocities and the immense suffering of millions of civilians’, Deputy Africa Director at HRW, Carine Kaneza Nantulya, said.
‘International scrutiny will be key to ensuring that the warring parties, which committed widespread abuses, don’t prolong the harm to the civilian population’.
The rights organisation further advised that key backers of the agreement concern themselves with protection of civilians, press for robust monitoring, and ensure that the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan authorities fully carry out their rights commitments.
HRW also advised Ethiopia’s partners to ensure that any mechanism established to oversee compliance with the cessation of hostilities includes a human rights monitoring component and gender rights experts to release timely public reports on the situation.
Source: HRW
Photo source: CNN
