Ethiopian Crisis: Eritrean troops accused of possible crimes against humanity in Tigray region
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray state systematically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the northern city of Axum on 28-29 November 2020, Amnesty International has said in a report released Friday, which termed the kilings crimes against humanity.
The Eritrean troops opened fire on the streets, shooting everyone on sight and later conducted house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity, it said.
Amnesty International spoke to 41 survivors and witnesses – including in-person interviews with recently arrived refugees in eastern Sudan and phone interviews with people in Axum – as well as 20 others with knowledge of the events.
They consistently described extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling and widespread looting after Ethiopian and Eritrean troops led an offensive to take control of the city amid the conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in mid-November.
Responding to Amnesty International report on allegations of killings of civilians in Axum, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Chief Commissioner Daniel Bekele said, “Amnesty findings should be taken seriously."
Bekele said the report would be a useful contribution for an ongoing investigation by EHRC throughout the Tigray region including Axum.
Amnesty’s report concludes that “Ethiopian and Eritrean forces mounted an indiscriminate shelling of Axum city killing civilians and over an approximately 24-hour period on 28-29 November, Eritrean soldiers deliberately shot civilians on the street and carried out extrajudicial executions in retaliation for an earlier attack by a small number of local militiamen, joined by local residents armed with sticks and stones.”
While EHRC has not finalised its investigation, preliminary findings indicate the killing of an, as yet, unknown number of civilians by Eritrean soldiers in the city of Axum in retaliation for an earlier attack by TPLF soldiers who were joined by a small number of local residents.
EHRC has also learned the attack was carried out by Eritrean soldiers after the TPLF soldiers left the area.
EHRC is also investigating allegations of shelling in multiple places across Tigray region.
Satellite imagery analysis by the organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab corroborates reports of indiscriminate shelling and mass looting, as well as identifies signs of new mass burials near two of the city’s churches.
“The evidence is compelling and points to a chilling conclusion. Ethiopian and Eritrean troops carried out multiple war crimes in their offensive to take control of Axum. Above and beyond that, Eritrean troops went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood, which appears to constitute crimes against humanity,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International's Director for East and Southern Africa.
“This atrocity ranks among the worst documented so far in this conflict. Besides the soaring death toll, Axum’s residents were plunged into days of collective trauma amid violence, mourning and mass burials.”
The mass killings came just before the annual celebration at Axum Tsion Mariam, a major Ethiopian Orthodox Christian festival on 30 November, compounding the trauma by casting a pall over an annual event that typically draws many pilgrims and tourists to the sacred city.
On 19 November 2020, Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces took control of Axum in a large-scale offensive, killing and displacing civilians with indiscriminate shelling and shooting.
In the nine days that followed, the Eritrean military engaged in widespread looting of civilian property and extrajudicial executions.
Witnesses could easily identify the Eritrean forces. They drove vehicles with Eritrean license plates, wore distinctive camouflage and footwear used by the Eritrean army and spoke Arabic or a dialect of Tigrigna not spoken in Ethiopia.
Some bore the ritual facial scars of the Ben Amir, an ethnic group absent from Ethiopia.
Finally, some of the soldiers made no secret of their identity; they openly told residents they were Eritrean.
"All we could see were dead bodies and people crying," one witness told Amnesty International.
Eritrean troops unleashed the worst of the violence on 28-29 November, according to the report.
The onslaught came directly after a small band of pro-TPLF militiamen attacked the soldiers’ base on Mai Koho mountain on the morning of 28 November.
The militiamen were armed with rifles and supported by residents brandishing improvised weapons, including sticks, knives and stones.
Sustained gunfire can be heard ringing out across the city in a video recorded early that day from several locations at the bottom of the mountain.
A 22-year-old man who wanted to bring food to the militia told Amnesty International: “The Eritrean soldiers were trained but the young residents didn’t even know how to shoot… a lot of the [local] fighters started running away and dropped their weapons. The Eritrean soldiers came into the city and started killing randomly.”
Survivors and witnesses said Eritrean forces deliberately and wantonly shot at civilians from about 4pm onwards on 28 November.
Amnesty International sad it has collected the names of more than 240 of the victims.
The organization has been unable to independently verify the overall death toll, but consistent witness testimonies and corroborating evidence make it plausible that hundreds of residents were killed.
Most of the burials took place on 30 November, but the process of collecting and burying the bodies lasted several days, Amnesty said.
-0- PANA AO/MA 26Feb2021
