Ethiopia: Eritrean soldiers committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity after signing of agreement to end hostilities – new report.

livus, 8 months ago

From the article:

The report, “Today or Tomorrow, They Should Be Brought Before Justice” – Rape, Sexual Slavery, Extra-Judicial Executions and Pillage by Eritrean Forces in Tigray, documents how EDF soldiers, allied to the Ethiopian federal government, were responsible for rape and sexual slavery, extra-judicial executions, and pillage. Amnesty International interviewed witnesses, survivors and family members, who testified about the extra-judicial execution of at least 20 civilians, primarily men, by the EDF in Mariam Shewito district between 25 October and 1 November 2022.

In addition, a social worker who documented extra-judicial executions in the district provided a list of more than 100 names of people who they said had been extra-judicially executed within this period, although Amnesty International was not able to independently corroborate all these cases remotely. For nearly three months after the signing of the CoHA, EDF soldiers raped and sexually enslaved women, and extra-judicially executed 24 civilians in Kokob Tsibah district.

“Despite the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, atrocities against civilians in Tigray continued with Eritrean soldiers subjecting women to horrific abuse including rape, gang rape and sexual enslavement, while civilian men were extrajudicially executed,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

At the time these crimes were committed, the conflict in northern Ethiopia, including the Tigray region, was a non-international armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law which, among other things, seeks to protect civilians and fighters who have ceased to take part in hostilities. The serious violations documented in this report amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

Survivors of sexual violence and witnesses to killings told Amnesty International they identified perpetrators through their camouflage, the Tigrigna dialect the soldiers spoke, and the type of interrogation questions they asked. Kokob Tsibah and Mariam Shewito are near the Eritrean border, and survivors say they could easily identify Eritrean soldiers...

Eritrean soldiers stationed in Mariam Shewito and Kokob Tsibah districts engaged in intentional killings of civilians, mostly men, while conducting house-to-house searches of houses and residences, allegedly in pursuit of members of the Tigrayan forces and their supporters. Multiple interviews supported claims that victims of extra-judicial executions were civilians. Given that these acts were committed in a non-international armed conflict, such executions amount to the war crime of murder...

Amnesty International is calling for the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) to be renewed during the upcoming UN Human Rights Council’s 54th session starting on 11 September 2023.

Amnesty International is also calling on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to rescind its decision to terminate the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia established in May 2021. In June 2023, the mandate was terminated before the Commission of Inquiry had produced a final report.

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