UN: Warring sides committing atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray - Evidence of War Crime and Crime Against Humanity within the region
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It's very alarming and devastating to note that more conflict zones in Africa are characterized by high human right abuses ranging from rape, torture as well as forced labour and forced marriages and not to be left behind, child abuse.
It's been observed by the International Commission for Human Right Experts that the past 2 years, there have repeated cases of human rights abuses from the Ethiopian Tigray region and this has been a result of the current war ongoing between the Ethiopian government and the rebels operating within the region.
UN experts on Monday said that there are reasonable grounds to believe that “war crimes and crimes against humanity” have been committed by the Ethiopian government in the Tigray region, warning that renewed conflict there increased the risk of “further atrocity crimes”.
In its first report, the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said it found that violations, such as extrajudicial killings and rape, have been committed by warring sides in Ethiopia since fighting erupted in the northern Tigray region in November 2020.Source
In November 2020, the Ethiopian government declared a six months state of emergency on the Tigray region, which was accused of looting military assets from the Ethiopian military and other secessionist tendencies.
This state of emergency on the region gave rise to serious violence within the region with the government. The resultant effects of these violence is the ongoing human right abuses within the region and as we speak, it's spreading to other parts of the country and bordering states.
The commission, created by the UN Human Rights Council last year and made up of three independent rights experts, said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that, in several instances, these violations amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
The report was issued as fighting resumed between the Ethiopian government and its allies, and forces backing the Tigray authorities following a tense five-month cessation of hostilities.Source
According to the International humanitarian laws, war crimes constitute of attacking civilian populated area as well as killing, torturing innocent citizens and all of these have been discovered to have occurred in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
With the increase in rape cases that aren't given justice to, the military have been torturing innocent citizens in Tigray region, which equals to crimes against humanity.
It should be noted that the people inhabiting the Tigray region have been denied access to basic amenities such as electricity, banking and internet for over a year because of the fight against rebel group.
This, combined with shortages of food, medicine and fuel as well as severe restrictions on humanitarian access have left some 20 million people in need of assistance and protection, nearly three-quarters of them women and children.
“The combined effect of these measures, which remain in effect more than a year later, has forced much of the population in Tigray to eat less and sell harvest and reproductive livestock. Sources also reported an increase in desperate means to survive, such as child marriage and child labour, human trafficking, and transactional sex,” the report said.Source
The absence of medicine,fuel and food shortages within the region simply means the government is infringing on the human rights. It's high time the international community call on the Ethiopian government to give the people of Tigray region their basics that befits them.
Finally, the UN should file a suit against the Ethiopian government for crimes against humanity that they've committed in the Tigray as well as easing and end completely the conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray region.