Johannesburg – The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières has revealed details of the terrible war being waged virtually out of sight in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia, reporting that government forces executed cold-blooded civilians.
Since the outbreak of violence in Tigray months ago, the Ethiopian government has imposed a media shutdown, which has prevented foreign and local journalists from entering the region until recently. Some journalists have begun to approach the fighting now, but with little freedom to move, so the veil of secrecy is slowly rising and we continue to feel horrible violence long after the fact.
That is why the account of eyewitnesses of Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym MSF) of recent brutality has become a key test of the ongoing conflict.
The group said its clearly marked MSF car and two public buses traveling behind it were stopped on a road by Ethiopian soldiers. His driver was beaten but allowed to return to the vehicle, but the organization said bus passengers were unloaded, men and women were separated and the men, who numbered at least four, were shot. at a distance.
Minasse Wondimu Hailu / Anadolu / Getty Agency
It is a horrible story, but the worst thing is that it seems to be a common occurrence in the region, as stories of massacres and other violence continue to appear, usually long after the fact and always difficult to verify.
Sexual violence
On Monday, the United Nations called for an end to indiscriminate and targeted attacks on civilians in Tigray, including rape and other forms of sexual violence.
Gender-based violence does it has long been used as a weapon of war around the world, and in this particular conflict, which has begun to seem more and more like an example of ethnic cleansing, rape is being used to humiliate, shame, destroy the dignity and destroy the souls of Tigra women.
Ethiopian government troops have been accused of joining forces with soldiers from neighboring Eritrea to brutalize and rape Tigrinya women. Some of the limited reports that emerge from the region suggest that when these women are attacked, they are told that it will cleanse them of Tigrinya blood.
The British Channel 4 recently aired a devastating report on these atrocities. One survivor recounted a 10-day hard test on the network during which she said she and five other women were raped in groups by Eritrean soldiers. He said the troops joked and took pictures while injecting him with a drug, tying it to a rock, stripping it, stabbing it and raping it repeatedly.
Doctors who have treated tigrayan women have said 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 that atrocities have been committed and has said that any soldier convicted of raping women or other war crimes would be held responsible. But, as he said, he also suggested that circumstances in the region were being exaggerated by propaganda.
What is the war about in Tigray?
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 long-running tensions 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, dominating politics and enjoying disproportionate economic power for several decades.
Abiy came to power in 2018 following widespread anti-government protests and immediately tried to increase control of the central government and minimize regional autonomy. TPLF officials were purged from government, some accused of corruption, and tensions between the two entities grew steadily from then until the armed conflict began in November.
The Eritrean forces crossing the border to join Abyy’s troops have been of particular concern.
In 2019, Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize to end the long war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. On Tuesday this week, Abiy and his government blatantly denied the presence of any Eritrean forces 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 worried they would be attacked by their longtime enemy: the TPLF, whose forces bore the brunt of the fighting during the Ethiopia-Eritrea war.
Eritrea used to be part of Ethiopia, but became a separate nation after a war of independence in the early 1990s. Then war broke out between them again in 1998. Abiy said this week that Eritrea had promised that its forces would withdraw when the Ethiopian army could control the border.
Eritrean forces are now accused of the worst human rights atrocities committed in Tigray since the current conflict began.
US intervention?
The Biden administration has sent $ 50 million in aid and sent Senator Chris Coons to speak with Ethiopian leaders, but many experts argue that not only the United States but the rest of the Western world is staying short when tackling the crisis. .
Despite repeated condemnations by the United States and the United Nations for atrocities, the brutality has continued and, based on emerging reports, is becoming even more severe.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Abiy to urge an end to the conflict and there is no doubt that diplomatic pressure on the Ethiopian leader to end the violence is increasing.
Until recently, Ethiopia, a close U.S. military ally, was seen as the star point of the volatile Horn of Africa, but as the Tigray conflict drags on, analysts worry that Ethiopia may become a source more instability in a region plagued by discomfort.
In an indication of the gravity of the United States with the crisis, Blinken announced Wednesday night that a special envoy would be appointed for the Horn of Africa, with Ethiopia as the top priority.
Blinken has held talks this week with European Union officials to discuss “various measures to support unhindered humanitarian access, the investigation of human rights abuses, the cessation of hostilities and the immediate withdrawal of Eritrea from the territory. Ethiopian “.