The war began a year ago after regional forces and Tigrayan soldiers in the national army seized control of military bases across Tigray. The report said the Tigrayan leadership was reluctant to engage due to the presence of investigators from the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. It did not mention that Ethiopia deported a U.N. The report mentioned investigators were often hindered in their work, particularly areas controlled by Amhara forces, or unable to visit certain areas due to insecurity. The United Nations has previously said the government operated a “de facto blockade” of food aid.

The report accused all sides of blocking aid at different times and said it could not verify whether starvation was used as a weapon of war, as had been previously alleged by the United Nations aid chief. The report also accused Eritrean soldiers of forcing Eritrean refugees living in Tigray to return, in violation of international law. Ben Curtis/The Associated Press YEAR OF CONFLICT Ethiopia and Eritrea are not members of the International Criminal Court, so it has no jurisdiction.Ī destroyed tank sits on the side of a road south in western Tigray, on May 1.

It was not clear whether the report’s findings could form the basis for legal action. Reuters and other news organisations, rights groups, and civil society groups have documented many more mass killings of civilians that were not mentioned in the report. The report noted around 600,000 Tigrayans fled Western Tigray after it fell under Amhara control.

Investigators said they did not travel to Sudan, where most Tigrayan victims of Mai Kadra fled, due to time constraints. The report said Eritrean soldiers had killed around 100 civilians in the city of Axum, that Ethiopian soldiers had dragged about 70 men from their homes and killed them in three villages in southern Tigray, and that Tigrayan forces had killed around 200 Amhara civilians in the town of Mai Kadra, a crime followed by revenge killings of Tigrayans by Amhara. The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda said the report “did not cover all the heinous crime spots” and accused Ethiopian investigators of bias.Īmhara regional spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh was unreachable but has previously denied abuses. Ethiopia has said individual soldiers are on trial for rape and killing.Įritrean Information Minister Yemane Meskel, who spent months denying Eritrean troops were in Tigray, called the report “fallacious … utterly false” in a tweet. He said a civil-military task force would be established to investigate all the allegations in the report. Prime Minister Abiy said he accepted the report despite some “serious reservations” and said it did not accuse the government of genocide or using food as a weapon.

Long war 2