Tigray rebels kill dozens of civilians: Ethiopian rights organization Conflict News

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission says rebels killed at least 184 people in the Amhara region in July and August.

Tigray rebels have killed more than 150 civilians in the Amhara region for being informants or providing assistance to federal forces, the government-linked Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said in a report.

The study, published on Saturday, based on 128 interviews, focuses on parts of Amhara that were fierce fighting between Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters and Ethiopian soldiers in July and August, as the country’s savage conflict enters its second year.

At least 184 civilians were killed in the bloodshed, the EHRC said, accusing TPLF fighters of “deliberately killing many civilians (in captured villages and rural areas).”

Civilians were shot dead for aiding the federal government or for protecting wounded soldiers, the commission said.

“They shot and killed mental patients in villages controlled by TPLF forces on suspicion of being government informants,” he added.

Local youths, meanwhile, killed people fleeing the war-torn Tigray on charges of spying for the TPLF, the commission said.

“In addition, both sides in the war were involved in bombings not aimed at a specific military target, resulting in civilian deaths, injuries and damage to civilian property.”

EHRC High Commissioner Daniel Bekele said, “The violations and abuses committed by all parties in the South Gondar and North Wollo Zones of the Amhara region underscore the urgent need to end the ongoing suffering caused by civilians.”

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to Tigra to remove the TPLF last November, he said, in response to attacks by rebels in army camps.

Although the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner promised a quick victory, by the end of June the TPLF had recaptured most of Tigray before expanding Amhara and Afarra.

As the humanitarian toll has risen, with reports of massacres, sexual assaults and the famine crisis, rights groups have sounded the alarm.

Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that the Abiy government was “preventing the effective siege” of Tigray – where Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers are accused of mass rape – by preventing survivors from accessing health care and other critical services.

On the same day, Amnesty International said that Tigris rebels had raped, robbed and beaten women in an attack on an Amhara village.

The TPLF criticized Amnesty’s “worryingly misguided methodology” but said it would conduct its own investigation, adding: “If our investigation finds out that Tiger fighters have committed such crimes, the Tigray government will bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Michelle Bachelet, the head of the UN rights office and the EHRC in a joint investigation published last week, found evidence of “serious abuses” on all sides, saying some of the violations could be crimes against humanity.

The TPLF, which did not respond to Saturday’s report, dismissed previous findings because of its involvement with the EHRC, while calling for an independent investigation into human rights violations.

The Abiy government has said the perpetrator of the abuse is committed to holding them accountable.