KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – The Ethiopian leader said on Tuesday that atrocities have been reported in Tigray, his first public acknowledgment of possible war crimes in the country’s northern region, where fighting continues as government forces hunt for the fugitive leaders.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also admitted, after repeated denials by the authorities, that troops from neighboring Eritrea have entered Tigray, where their presence has caused “damage” to the inhabitants of the region.
“Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in the Tigray region,” Abiy said on Tuesday in a speech to lawmakers in the capital Addis Ababa.
War is “a bad thing,” he said, speaking the local Amharic language. “We know what destruction this war has caused.” He said soldiers who raped women or committed other crimes will be held accountable, even though he quoted “propaganda of exaggeration” from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the once-dominant party whose leaders dispute Abiy’s legitimacy after the postponement of elections. last year.
Commenting on the reported presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia, Abiy said they crossed the border and crossed Tigray, “causing damage to our people … We will not accept that.”
He suggested that the Eritrean soldiers are not there with his blessing. “The argument put forward by the Eritrean government for this is that it is a matter of national security because Ethiopian forces (Tigrayan) are chasing troops in other locations, so they want to keep checking border areas,” he said. “But they have told us they are not willing to stay as long as we check trenches along the border.”
Abiy spoke as concerns continue to grow over the humanitarian situation in the controversial region, home to 6 million of Ethiopia’s more than 110 million people. Authorities have not named a death toll in the war, but three opposition groups in Tigray say there are more than 50,000 are murdered.
The United States has characterized some of the abuses in the Tigray War as “ethnic cleansing,” allegations that have been dismissed by the Ethiopian authorities as unfounded. It has also urged Eritrean forces fighting alongside the Ethiopian government forces to withdraw from Tigray.
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to make peace with Eritrea, is under pressure to end the conflict in Tigray and to open an international investigation into alleged war crimes, ideally led by the United Nations. The government’s critics say a running federal probe is simply not enough because the government cannot effectively investigate itself.
Rupert Colville, a spokesman in Geneva for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, told The Associated Press last week that Ethiopia’s Human Rights Commission had asked to participate with her office in “ a joint investigation into allegations of serious human rights violations by all parties. In Tigray.
Reports of atrocities by Ethiopian and Allied forces against residents of Tigray are detailed in reports from The Associated Press and by Amnesty International.
But Abiy said in Tuesday’s speech, which also answered questions from lawmakers, that fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had committed a massacre in the city of Mai Kadra. “But it’s not getting enough attention,” he said of the massacre, describing it as “the worst” of the conflict.
The Tigray conflict started in November, when Abiy sent government forces into the region after an attack on federal military facilities there. The federal army is now hunting the fugitive regional leaders, who have reportedly retreated to the remote mountainous regions of Tigray.
Abiy accused Tigray’s leaders of drumming up “a war story” as the area faced challenges such as a devastating locust invasion and the COVID-19 pandemic. “This was misguided and premature arrogance,” he said a transcription of his comments posted on Twitter by the Prime Minister’s Office.
President Joe Biden sent Senator Chris Coons to Ethiopia last week to voice the government’s “grave concern” about the growing humanitarian crisis and human rights abuses in Tigray, and the risk of wider instability in the Horn of Africa. Details of Coons’ weekend visit have not been released.
Humanitarian officials have warned that a growing number of people in Tigray could starve. Fighting broke out on the brink of harvest in the largely agricultural region, forcing untold numbers of people to flee their homes. Witnesses have reported widespread looting by Eritrean soldiers and the burning of crops.