HRW EXCLUSIVE: Eritrean and Tigrinya forces killed and raped refugees

NAIROBI, Sept. 16 (Reuters) – Eritrean soldiers and Tigrinya militias raped, detained and killed Eritrean refugees in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, an international rights watchdog said on Thursday.

The Human Rights Watch report detailed the attacks around two camps in Tigray, where local forces have been fighting since November with the Ethiopian government and its Eritrean allies in a conflict that has shaken the Horn of Africa region. .

Tens of thousands of Eritrean refugees live in Tigray, a mountainous and poor province of about 5 million people.

The Tigrayans distrusted them because they were the same nationality as the Eritrean soldiers they occupied, the Eritreans because the loyalty of the refugees was suspicious after fleeing their homeland.

“The horrific killings, rapes and looting of Eritrean refugees in Tigray are clear war crimes,” said Laetitia Bader, director of Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Horn of Africa, whose work – first reported by Reuters– was based on interviews with 28 refugees and other sources, including satellite imagery.

Eritrea’s Information Minister did not immediately return calls seeking comment, but Eritrea has previously denied atrocities and said its forces have not targeted civilians.

A spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front said Tigrayan’s formal uniformed forces had recently moved to the area and local militias had committed possible abuses.

“It is mostly the last month or so that our forces have moved to these areas. There was a huge presence of the Eritrean army,” Getachew Reda told Reuters. “If there were watchdog groups acting in the heat, I can’t rule it out.”

International researchers were welcome to visit the area, he said.

Prior to the Tigray conflict, Ethiopia hosted some 150,000 Eritrean refugees, fleeing poverty and authoritarian government.

Much of the report focused on two camps, Shimelba and Hitsats, destroyed during the fighting. HRW quoted the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as saying that there were still 7,643 missing out of every 20,000 refugees living in the Hitsats and Shimelba camps.

UNHCR, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said it was “dismayed” by reports of “immense suffering” in refugee camps, which it was unable to access from November to March.

“IN ALL HOUSES, PEOPLE DIE”

Eritrean forces arrived in the northern city of Hitsats on Nov. 19, killing residents and looting and occupying the refugee camp, HRW said. Some refugees helped target the looters, a resident told HRW.

“People were killed in every house,” a resident told HRW.

Four days later, Tigrayan fighters attacked an area near the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Camp Hitsats, killing nine refugees and injuring 17, HRW reported.

“My husband had our 4-year-old son on his back and our 6-year-old son in his arms. When he came back to help me enter the church, he was shot,” a refugee told Human Rights Watch.

Two dozen residents in the town of Hitsats were killed in clashes that day, HRW reported.

The report said HRW had not been able to determine the extent to which Tigray’s formal forces commanded directly over Tigray’s local militias operating around Hitsats.

Shortly afterwards, Eritrean soldiers detained two dozen refugees, who were never seen again, HRW said. They also brought the 17 wounded refugees to Eritrea.

Eritrean forces withdrew from the Hitsats camp in early December. Tigrayan’s forces returned on December 5, sending refugees fleeing under attack.

Refugees around the villages of Zelasle and Ziban Gedena, northwest of Hitsats, reported that they were shot and attacked with grenades. Tigrayan’s forces fled fleeing refugees back to Hitsats, shooting at some persecuted people, the refugees told HRW. Some women also said they were raped by Tigrayan fighters while fleeing. A 27-year-old woman said Tigrayan fighters raped her along with her 17-year-old sister.

Tigrayan forces withdrew from Hitsats on Jan. 4, HRW said. Eritrean forces returned, ordered the remaining refugees to leave, and then destroyed the camp.

In the northernmost camp of Shimelba, Eritrean forces killed at least one refugee, raped at least four more and killed local residents, HRW said.

Violence and severe food shortages forced some refugees to return to Eritrea. Others fled south to two more camps, Adi Harush and Mai Aini. Tigrayan forces took over these camps in June and refugees reported killings and looting.

“We are extremely concerned about the current situation of more than 20,000 Eritrean refugees living in the Mai Aini and Adi Harush camp in southern Tigray,” UNHCR said on Wednesday that UNHCR said there was a severe shortage of food and water and that health was not available.

Edited by Andrew Cawthorne

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