Reports, images of Tigray executions are “deeply disturbing,” the U.S. senator says after CNN investigation

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“Coons, a Delaware Democrat, tweeted on Saturday.” The new reports and images coming out of Tigray about extrajudicial killings, murders of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced displacement are deeply disturbing. ”

His comments come after a CNN investigation found that men in Ethiopian army uniforms executed unarmed men in Tigray. A BBC-led investigation also published on Thursday that confirmed the same massacre near Mahibere Dego, a mountainous area in central Tigray.

Coons said it was “fundamental” that the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the United Nations Office for Human Rights “have the necessary access and support to conduct a thorough, independent and transparent on war crimes and abuses by all actors. ”

Senator Chris Coons

A U.S. State Department spokesman told CNN on Friday that officials “are deeply concerned about human rights violations, abuses and atrocities” reported in the region and noted a growing urgency “to establish international investigations. independents “.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is a body designated by the Ethiopian state, which is part of a joint US-backed mechanism tasked with conducting investigations into alleged atrocities in Tigray.

The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Gregory Meeks, has called on the international community to take the lead in any research proposal. In comments on CNN’s findings, Meeks called for the investigations to be “internationally directed.”

Massacre in the mountains
The Ethiopian government said on Friday that “social media posts and claims cannot be taken as evidence” after a CNN investigation found that Ethiopian soldiers executed unarmed men in the Tigray region. devastated by the country’s war.

The office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told CNN in a statement: “The Ethiopian government has expressed its open will for independent investigations to be conducted in the Tigray region.”

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