The commission of inquiry details a catastrophic situation in this region where the Ethiopian federal government and its allies refused around 6 million people access to basic services, for more than a year.
Le Monde with AFP
In a report intended for the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN), a commission of three experts alerts, Monday, September 19, on the conflict that has been tearing Ethiopia since the end of 2020 . The commission “has reasonable reasons to think that, in several cases, the” violations “of fundamental rights” correspond to war crimes and crimes against humanity “.
“The commission is deeply disturbed by what it discovered, because it reflects a deep polarization and hatred between ethopia”, according to the conclusions of the text. “This has created a worrying cycle of extreme violence to which reprisals respond, which further increases the imminent risk of new atrocities, even more serious,” worries experts.
The conflict broke out in early November 2020, when the Federal Government of Abiy Ahmed launched an offensive against the Tigrean rebels of the Popular Liberation of the Tiguration of the Tiger (FPLT) controlling this region of northern Ethiopia. Tiger authorities “have always assured” that the federal government was responsible for crimes against humanity, said a spokesperson for the FPLT, interviewed by the France-Presse agency on Monday. Solicited, the federal government has not reacted. The resumption of fighting in the north of the country, August 24, shattered five months of truce.
Experts highlighted the catastrophic situation in the Tiger, where the federal government and its allies refused around 6 million people access to basic services, for more than a year, and where severe restrictions on the ‘Humanitarian access left 90 % of the population with an urgent need for assistance.
“Devastating impact”
The report specifies that there are “reasonable reasons to believe that the federal government and the allied regional governments [mainly Eritrea] have committed and continue to commit crimes against humanity for ethnic reasons and Other inhuman acts “. They “intentionally cause great suffering”, restricting humanitarian aid, according to the report. The president of the commission, Kaari Betty Murungi, described the humanitarian crisis in the tiger as “shocking, both in its dimensions and its duration”.
“The generalized refusal and obstruction of access to basic services, food, health care and humanitarian aid have a devastating impact on the civilian population, and we have reasonable reasons for To believe that it is equivalent to a crime against humanity, “she said. “We also have reasonable reasons to believe that the federal government uses famine as a method of war,” she added.
The Commission – which also detailed the numerous obstacles which limited its investigation on the spot, between the ban on leaving the capital, Addis Ababa, and the lack of means – was established for one year on December 17, 2021 , to conduct an in-depth and independent investigation into the accusations of repeated human rights violations.
In a whole series of recommendations, she asks the federal government and the Eritrean and Tigernes authorities to ensure that the authors of the abuses are judged. It urges international and regional bodies to “take measures that will restore peace, stability and security and avoid new violations” of human rights. They also ask the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to constantly monitor the situation and continue to call on the parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, human rights and refugee rights.