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Ethiopia: civil war, deaths, rapes, and refugees

Ethiopian woman cooking her meal in Um Rakuba refugee camp in Sudan. By Amors Photos (Shutterstock, 2021).

Ethiopia: civil war, deaths, rapes, and refugees

At the beginning of November 2020, a deadly conflict erupted in the region of Tigray, in northern Ethiopia. This conflict has forced 55,00 people to seek refuge in Sudan, bringing the number of those in urgent need of food to 4.5 million (OCHA, 2021aWalsh, 2021). Hundreds of people have been killed but the actual number of victims is still unknown. Multiple rapes have been reported and the local health system has nearly collapsed in the last months (OCHA, 2021b).

The conflicts started at the beginning of November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of orchestrating a military attack against a government military base with the aim of stealing weapons (Walsh & Marks, 2020). Tensions have always been running among the central government and the TPLF party. While the former, guided by Mr. Abiy, is aiming for a national centralization of powers, the latter is favoring an increase in the autonomy of regional governments (Walsh & Dahir, 2020). Eritrea, one of the countries sharing a border with the Tigray region, decided to join in the conflict supporting the central government while soldiers from the Northern Command of the Ethiopian military decided to side with the TPLF (Walsh & Dahir, 2020).

Between November 28-29, the Eritrean troops entered the Ethiopian city of Axum in the Tigray region, killing hundreds of civilians and carrying out a house-to-house search for TPLF members, executing both adults and young boys (Amnesty International, 2021a). In the aftermath of the conflict, Eritrean soldiers shot at those who tried to remove the corpses from the streets (Amnesty International, 2021b). The dead bodies remained unburied for days and many were eaten by scavengers, such as hyenas (BBC, 2021). Amnesty International declared that during the Axum massacre both Eritrean and Ethiopian troops committed a number of crimes against humanity as well as war crimes (Amnesty International, 2021a). Massacres were also perpetuated by the Eritrean troops in November through a mass killing at the Maryam Dengelat church (Arvanitidis et al., 2021). The Tigrayan forces have also been accused of mass killings, as hundreds of civilians were killed in the town of Mai Kadra between November 9-10 (Burke, 2021). Indiscriminate shelling also took place in November in the towns of Mekelle, Humera, and Adigrat, all situated in the Tigray region (UN News, 2021a).

Since November, more conflicts have emerged. At the end of January between 150-300 men were killed in a village near the city of Dela (Burke, 2021). At the beginning of February, the United Nations (UN) received information about the killings of 8 protestants in Adigrat, a town situated in the North-East area of Tigray, Mekelle, Shire, and Wukro (OHCHR, 2021). In mid-February, habitants of Adigrat reported the noise of heavy artillery firing for days. Similar reports have come from the towns of Adwa and other locations (Burke, 2021).

About two million people are expected to be in need of aid in the next few months as a consequence of the ongoing conflicts (OCHA, 2021a). Reports are indicating a rise in the number of cases of hunger and malnutrition. Local farmers have missed the harvest season due to the conflicts and local markets are close to collapsing (OCHA, 2021b). The number of rapes is also increasing, and 136 cases have already been reported. Most of them seemed to be perpetuated by soldiers offering basic commodities in exchange (UN News, 2021aOCHA, 2021b). Meanwhile, the health system is collapsing, with only 22% of health facilities in the area being functional. Most of the health centers have been vandalized and many unpaid workers have left while the first cases of cholera are starting to emerge (OCHA, 2021b). UNICEF announced in February that:
 
The very real risk of disease outbreak, coupled with poor access to water, sanitation, hygiene and health services, rising food insecurity and inflation in food prices, poses grave threats for malnourished children” (UN News, 2021b).
 
About 55,00 people have already left their hometowns to seek refuge in the nearby nation of Sudan (OCHA, 2021a). Both Mai Aini and Adi Harush refugee camps in Ethiopia have now reached their maximum capacity and there is an ongoing effort to find new suitable places for war refugees (OCHA, 2021c). Many families have been separated and the number of unaccompanied children is increasing (UN News, 2021b). Several family traumas are being reported by UNICEF:
 
“Many families reported deep psychosocial distress and said they did not feel it was safe to return home, speaking of a persistent and pervasive fear of present and future harm” (UN News, 2021b).
 
The internet connection as well as mobile network communications have been cut off in many parts of Tigray, while public transports are limited, making it difficult for humanitarian organizations to give assistance and to collect data to give a truthful insight into the severity of the situation (OCHA, 2021b). Five humanitarian workers have been killed during the conflicts and about 85 incidents of vandalization of humanitarian vehicles have been reported (OCHA, 2021cOCHA, 2021a). The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, raised her concerns regarding the several journalists and translators working in the area that have been imprisoned, declaring:
 
With multiple actors in the conflict, blanket denials and finger-pointing, there is a clear need for an objective, independent assessment of these reports – victims and survivors of these violations must not be denied their rights to the truth and to justice (UN News, 2021a).
 
Amnesty International has urged the UN to launch an investigation into the allegation of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Tigray conflict (Amnesty International, 2021c). Sarah Jackson, Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn, and the Great Lakes at Amnesty International declared:
 
“There is no time to lose – work on this must begin now, before evidence could be destroyed and memories begin to fade” (Amnesty International, 2021c).


Article by
Cristina Miceli


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