The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report reveals that over 749 people were killed and 309 injured between July and October 2021. In addition, hundreds of women were subjected to cruel and systematic rape by Tigray forces, and hundreds of people were uprooted with millions worth of property damaged.
The Tigray Forces initiated attacks in the Afar and Amhara regions starting from July 2021, capturing several towns until most places were reclaimed by the federal government and the allied Afar and Amhara security forces in October 2021. Tigray forces received support from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) in some locations.
According to the EHRC, the warring parties have been involved in indiscriminate attacks on vulnerable civilians, including women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. Civilians were used as human shields, and military operations were conducted from civilian homes in urban areas. Tigray forces were also indiscriminately placing landmines.
The reports indicate that at least 403 individuals were killed and 309 sustained injuries due to shelling mainly by TPLF forces. Additionally, Tigray forces indiscriminately killed 107 civilians and injured 35 in Galicoma, Afar, with 27 of the deceased being children.
Six civilians were killed by ENDF artillery aimed at TPLF forces in Debarque, while five children were killed by landmines in the same city. Drone attacks by the ENDF killed six civilians and injured four in Woldia.
At least 346 civilians were killed in an unlawful and extrajudicial manner, mainly by Tigray forces in the two regions. The forces targeted individuals they accused of spying for the government. OLA also committed killings of government officials and their family members in the areas under their control.
The EHRC report reveals that Tigray forces have been engaged in mass killings, including:
- Between August 30 and September 4, 2021, Tigray forces killed 47 civilians (41 males and 5 females) in Chena kebele in the Amhara region.
- On December 2, 2021, Tigray forces shot and killed 40 civilians during funeral processions and raiding houses in Antsokia woreda, Ambo-Wuha village, in the North Shoa Zone.
- On November 3, 2021, Tigray forces shot and killed a 9-year-old child and an 18-year-old girl in Kasagita town, Afar, shooting them in the head and chest.
- On November 23, 2021, OLF Shane fighters shot and killed the father and brother of the Kebele administration in Ataye city, Amhara Region.
- In December 2021, approximately 30 individuals accused of being OLF Shene members were executed by ENDF soldiers in the Oromo Administrative zone of the Amhara region.
- On November 30, 2021, in Dabo town, Amhara Region, Amhara Special Forces shot at the home of a family accused of “providing food to Tigray Forces,” injuring a mother and child. The child later bled to death.
Tigray forces have also been engaged in torture and other inhumane punishments. The warring parties were also involved in arbitrary detention, abduction, and forced disappearances.
The report also documents the widespread cruel and systematic rape of women by Tigray forces in the Amhara region. EHRC believes that hundreds of Amhara women were subjected to rape intended to demoralize, dehumanize, and punish them. According to EHRC, “The attacks were often perpetrated in a premeditated and cruel manner including gang rape, rape in front of family members of victims/survivors, and insertion of foreign objects into the vagina.”
Tigray forces damaged and looted private and public service facilities, particularly education and health facilities. A total of 2,343 health facilities (40 hospitals, 453 health centers, and 1,850 health posts) in the Amhara Region and 66 facilities (2 hospitals, 19 health centers, and 45 health posts) in the Afar Region have been looted, damaged, and ceased operations. Furthermore, 1,025 schools in Amhara and 65 in Afar were completely destroyed. Financial institutions, historical sites, and private properties were not spared from the looting, destruction, and vandalism by the TPLF.
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