Tigrayan forces summarily executed dozens of
civilians in two towns they controlled in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region
between August 31 and September 9, 2021, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. These
killings highlight the urgent need for the United Nations Human Rights Council
to establish an international investigative mechanism into abuses by all
warring parties in the expanded Tigray conflict.
On August 31, Tigrayan forces entered the
village of Chenna and engaged in sporadic and at times heavy fighting with
Ethiopian federal forces and allied Amhara militias. Chenna residents told
Human Rights Watch that over the next five days Tigrayan forces summarily
executed 26 civilians in 15 separate incidents, before withdrawing on September
4. In the town of Kobo on September 9, Tigrayan forces summarily executed a
total of 23 people in four separate incidents, witnesses said. The killings
were in apparent retaliation for attacks by farmers on advancing Tigrayan
forces earlier that day.
“Tigrayan forces showed brutal disregard for
human life and the laws of war by executing people in their custody,” said Lama
Fakih, crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch. “These killings and
other atrocities by all sides to the conflict underscore the need for an
independent international inquiry into alleged war crimes in Ethiopia’s Tigray
and Amhara regions.”
Since
the start of the armed conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in
November 2020, Ethiopian military forces, alongside Eritrean armed forces,
Amhara regional special forces, and Amhara militias, have fought against a
Tigrayan armed group affiliated with the region’s former ruling party, the
Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Human Rights Watch and other rights
organizations have documented war crimes and possible crimes against humanity
in the Tigray region by all parties to the conflict. In July, fighting expanded
to the neighboring Amhara region, leading to large-scale displacement, with 3.7
million people in the region in need of humanitarian assistance.
In
September and October, Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 36 people,
including witnesses to killings, victims’ relatives and neighbors, religious
figures, and doctors about fighting and abuses in and around Chenna
Teklehaimanot village (Chenna) and the town of Kobo. Nineteen people described
seeing Tigrayan fighters in Chenna and Kobo summarily execute a total of 49
people who they said were civilians, providing 44 names.
Human
Rights Watch also obtained three lists of civilians who had allegedly been
killed in Chenna between August 31 and September 4. Taken together, the lists
contain 74 names, 30 of which witnesses and relatives of those killed also
mentioned to Human Rights Watch. In addition to summary executions, civilians
may also have been killed during the fighting from crossfire or heavy weapons.
Human Rights Watch was not able to determine how many were killed in this way.
A
70-year-old man said that two Tigrayan fighters killed his son, 23, and nephew,
24, in his home in Chenna’s Agosh-Mado neighborhood on September 2: “At about
midday two Tigrayan fighters came to my compound … they asked [for] our
identity cards and accused us of being members of the local defense forces.
Then they tied my son and nephew’s hands behind their backs and took them out
through the gate of my compound and shot them dead there. Then they turned to
me, and I begged them not to kill me and they left.”
Witnesses
also said that Tigrayan forces put civilians at grave risk by holding them in
residential compounds and shooting from those compounds at Ethiopian troops
positioned on nearby hills, drawing return fire. Such actions may amount to
“human shielding,” a war crime.
Tigrayan
forces seized control of Kobo in North Wollo district in mid-July. According to
residents of Kobo and nearby villages, on the morning of September 9, Tigrayan
forces from Kobo conducted operations in neighboring villages. As these forces
searched for weapons in at least two villages, farmers there attacked the
Tigrayan forces and fighting ensued. When Tigrayan forces returned to Kobo
shortly after midday, they attacked farmers working in the fields between the
villages and Kobo.
Four
residents described the summary execution of 23 people, including farmers
returning to Kobo, in four incidents in the town.
A
resident of Kobo’s Segno Gebia neighborhood said that at about 2 p.m. on
September 9 he watched from the window of his home as Tigrayan forces executed
four men. “At one point I saw about 50 Tigrayan fighters,” he said. “About five
of them went into a room where you can chew qat [a popular mild stimulant] and
brought out four men who were my neighbors and just shot them. I don’t know why
they chose them.”
On
December 4, Human Rights Watch sent TPLF authorities a summary of findings
requesting comment but received no response.
The
UN Human Rights Council should urgently establish an independent international
mechanism to investigate abuses in the Tigray conflict, which has since
expanded into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. The investigation should
include alleged summary executions and other serious violations of the laws of
war by Tigrayan forces, identify those responsible at all levels, and preserve
evidence for future accountability, Human Rights Watch said.
The
UN Security Council should add Ethiopia to its formal agenda and urgently take
concrete measures against the warring parties to deter further abuses,
including targeted sanctions and a global arms embargo.
“Tigrayan
forces’ apparent war crimes in Chenna and Kobo spotlight the urgent need for
all warring parties in Ethiopia to prioritize the protection of civilians,”
Fakih said. “The UN Security Council needs to pressure the parties to make this
happen through sanctions and an arms embargo.”
Expanding
Conflict in the Amhara Region
Since
the armed conflict began in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November 2020, human
rights groups and the media have documented serious laws-of-war violations by
the Ethiopian military and their allied forces. Tigrayan militias have also
been responsible for attacks against Eritrean refugees. Following the
withdrawal of Ethiopian federal forces from most of Tigray in June, the
government has imposed an effective siege on the region, blocking essential
humanitarian aid and services.
By
July, Tigrayan forces had moved into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions,
displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, some multiple times, and
triggering widespread humanitarian needs. Tigrayan forces have also committed
sexual violence against women and girls in the Amhara region. On November 4,
Ethiopian federal authorities declared a state of emergency granting security
forces sweeping powers, and called on the population to mobilize and join the
fight against Tigrayan forces.
Read full Report of HRW
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