By Abdi Ali
Published March 7, 2021
Eritrean and Ethiopian armed forces have been accused of killing civilians in the historic town of Axum in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November 2020.
Calling on United Nations to establish an independent inquiry into war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the region to pave the way for accountability, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has appealed to Ethiopian authorities to grant the UN ‘full and immediate access’ to the troubled region.
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HRW says that ‘Ethiopian and Eritrean forces indiscriminately shelled Axum, killing and wounding civilians’ on November 19, 2021 and that ‘For a week after taking control of the town, the forces shot civilians and pillaged and destroyed property, including healthcare facilities. After Tigray militia and Axum residents attacked Eritrean forces on November 28, Eritrean forces, in apparent retaliation, fatally shot and summarily executed several hundred residents, mostly men and boys, over a 24-hour period’.
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“Eritrean troops committed heinous killings in Axum with wanton disregard for civilian lives,” says Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at HRW. “Ethiopian and Eritrean officials can no longer hide behind a curtain of denial, but should allow space for justice and redress, not add to the layers of trauma that survivors already face.”
The attacks in Axum, HRW says, followed weeks of fighting between the Ethiopian military and allied forces from the Amhara region and Eritrean troops against forces affiliated with the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
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“Given the presence of multiple armed forces and groups and the poor track record of the warring parties in investigating grave abuses, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) should conduct an urgent, independent inquiry focused on establishing the facts, collecting forensic and other criminal evidence, and investigating war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in Axum and elsewhere is crucial,” HRW says in a statement released in Nairobi,Kenya, on March 5, 2021.
“Condemnations are not enough to bring justice to the victims of grave abuses committed by both Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in Tigray,” Bader says. “Attention and action by UN member states is needed now to ensure those responsible for these grave abuses are held accountable. So far, reports of these chilling abuses have been met by shameful silence.”
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