Johannesburg – Medical charity Doctors Without Borders has revealed details of the horrific war that is virtually invisible in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, and reports that government forces have executed civilians in cold blood.
Since the violence in Tigray broke out months ago, the Ethiopian government has imposed a media blackout, which, until recently, prevented both foreign and local journalists from entering the region at all. Some journalists have gotten close to the fighting now, but with little freedom of movement, so the veil of secrecy is slowly being lifted, and we keep hearing of horrific violence long after.
Therefore, MSF’s eyewitness account – known by the French acronym Médecins Sans Frontières – of recent atrocities has become an important piece of evidence in the ongoing conflict.
The group said the clearly marked MSF car and two public buses driving behind it were stopped on a road by Ethiopian soldiers. Their driver was beaten but allowed back into the vehicle, but the organization said the passengers were unloaded on the buses, the men and women separated and the men, who were at least four, were shot at close range.
Minasse Wondimu Hailu / Anadolu Agency / Getty
It’s a gruesome story, but what’s worse is that it seems to be a regular occurrence in the region as stories of massacres and other violence keep popping up, usually long afterward and always difficult to verify.
Sexual violence
On Monday, the United Nations called for an end to arbitrary and targeted attacks on civilians in Tigray, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.
Has gender-based violence long used as a weapon of war all over the world, and in this particular conflict – which is becoming more and more like an example of ethnic cleansing – rape is used to humiliate, shame, destroy dignity and destroy the souls of Tigrayan women.
Ethiopian government forces have been accused of joining forces with soldiers from neighboring Eritrea to assault and rape Tigrayan women. Some of the limited reports coming out of the region suggest that when these women are attacked, they are told to be purified of their Tigrayan blood.
Britain’s Channel 4 recently aired a damning report on these atrocities. A survivor told the network of a harrowing 10-day ordeal in which she said she and five other women had been raped by Eritrean soldiers. She said the troops joked and took pictures while they injected her with a drug, tied her to a rock, undressed, stabbed her and raped her repeatedly.
Doctors who have treated Tigrayan women have said that a woman’s vagina was filled with nails, stones and plastic.
For the first time since the conflict began, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has acknowledged atrocities, saying that any soldier found guilty of raping women or other war crimes will be held accountable. But as he put it, he also suggested that conditions in the region were being exaggerated for propaganda.
What is the war in Tigray about?
The conflict began in November after Ahmed ordered an offensive against the ruling party in Tigray, a semi-autonomous region of Ethiopia, accusing them of attacking a government military base.
But it was the result of the long-standing tension between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and Ahmed’s central government in the capital Addis Ababa. The TPLF used to be the ruling party of Ethiopia, dominated politics and enjoyed disproportionate economic power for decades.
Abiy rose to power in 2018 in the wake of widespread anti-government protests, and he immediately sought to increase central government control and minimize regional autonomy. TPLF officials were purged from the government, some accused of corruption, and tension between the two entities steadily increased from that point until the armed conflict began in November.
Eritrean troops crossing the border to join Abiy’s forces are of particular concern.
In 2019, Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the long war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. As late as Tuesday this week, Abiy and his government blatantly denied the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia, but the evidence was overwhelming and he was forced to admit that Eritrean troops had crossed the border.
He said they came because they were afraid they would be attacked by their old enemy – the TPLF, whose forces suffered the most during the Ethiopia-Eritrean war.
Eritrea used to be part of Ethiopia but became a separate nation after a war of independence in the early 1990s. Then in 1998 war broke out between them again. Abiy said this week that Eritrea had promised that its troops would withdraw if the Ethiopian army could control the border.
Eritrean forces are now being charged with the worst human rights atrocities committed in Tigray since the current conflict began.
American intervention?
The Biden administration has sent $ 50 million dollars in aid and sent Senator Chris Coons to speak with leaders in Ethiopia, but many experts would argue that not only the US but the rest of the Western world falls short when it comes to addressing the crisis. .
Despite repeated condemnations from the US and the United Nations over the atrocities, the cruelty has continued and, according to the reports that emerged, got worse.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Abiy to push for an end to the conflict, and there is no doubt that diplomatic pressure is mounting on the Ethiopian leader to end the violence.
Until recently, Ethiopia, a close U.S. military ally, was seen as the strategic hub in the volatile Horn of Africa, but as the Tigray conflict continues, analysts are concerned that Ethiopia could become another source of instability in a region that is ravaged by Islamic uprisings and unrest.
To indicate how seriously the US is taking the crisis, Blinken announced on Wednesday evening that a special envoy would be appointed for the Horn of Africa, with Ethiopia a top priority.
Blinken held talks with European Union officials this week on “a variety of measures in support of unhindered humanitarian access, investigation of human rights violations, a cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of Eritrea from Ethiopian territory.”