ETHNIC CLEANSING BEING COMMITTED BY OFFICIALS AND MILITIAS IN TIGRAY: REPORT

Sat 27 February 2021:

A confidential US government report obtained by The New York Times, Ethiopian officials and allied militiamen are waging a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in Tigray, the war-torn region of northern Ethiopia. where tens of thousands of people have gone missing

Written earlier this month, it notes that officials and fighters from neighboring Amhara state entered Tigray in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

They are “deliberately and efficiently rendering Western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organized use of force and intimidation,” said the report. “Whole villages were severely damaged or completely erased.”

Fighters and officials from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region, who entered Tigray in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, “deliberately and effectively make West Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organized use of force and bullying, ”the report says..

Amnesty International said in a report earlier Friday that Eritrean troops fighting in Tigray have systematically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the northern city of Axum on Nov. 28-29, 2020.

Troops opened fire in the streets and conducted house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity.

The situation was discussed by US President Joe Biden and President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya during a telephone call Thursday.

“Presidents Biden and Kenyatta discussed the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights crises in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the need to prevent further loss of life and ensure humanitarian access,” according to a White House statement.

The Tigray region has been the scene of fighting since November when Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), who he accused of attacking federal army camps.

Government troops took control of the regional capital, Mekele, in late November, but the TPLF vowed to fight and clashes have persisted in the Horn of Africa country, hampering efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.

On Tuesday, a European Union envoy, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, told reporters the situation in Tigray was “very out of control” after returning from a fact-finding trip to Ethiopia and Sudan. . The bloc suspended $ 110 million in aid to Ethiopia at the start of the conflict, and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last month warned of possible war crimes in Tigray and said the crisis “troubled” the whole region.

Ethiopia regularly rejects criticism of its campaign in Tigray as sidekicks of its enemies in Tigray. But on Friday afternoon, in response to Amnesty International’s report, Abiy’s office said it was ready to collaborate in an international investigation into the atrocities committed in Tigray. The government “reiterates its commitment to enable a stable and peaceful region,” he said in a statement.

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