Panafrican News Agency

Ethiopian crisis: Rights group calls for solidarity with victims, survivors of atrocity

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - As the bloody Ethiopian conflict enters its third year on Thursday, Human rights advocate, Amnesty International, has urged the international community to show solidarity with the victims and survivors of atrocity crimes in the conflict.

Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for campaigns East Africa, Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes regions, said in a statement on Wednesday that despite restrictions on access and communication shutdowns, the organisation has repeatedly documented "unspeakable abuses by all parties to the conflict", yet the response from the international community, including the African Union (AU), has been dismal”.

Amnesty International said the armed conflict, which broke out on 3 November 2020, has since led to "appalling violations" by parties on all sides.

“Since the start of the conflict in northern Ethiopia, millions of civilians have been displaced and thousands killed," Mwangovya said. "All parties have been responsible for serious violations, encompassing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extrajudicial executions and summary killings of thousands of people and sexual violence against women and girls."

Amnesty International said on the second anniversary of the start of the conflict, it will launch a global campaign to underscore the gravity on the human rights crisis in Ethiopia, while also detailing how the AU and the international community have offered "a completely inadequate response to one of the deadliest conflicts in the world”.

Ethiopian government troops and the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces have been locked in  the conflict since November 2020. There was a five-month lull in the fighting, but hostilities resumed again on 24 August.

The fighting has claimed thousands of lives and caused a huge humanitarian situation in which millions of people are on the verge of starvation.

The AU, UN, many countries and humanitarian organisations have expressed deep concern about the fighting and called for a ceasefire.

AU-led peace talks opened in South Africa last week in efforts to end the conflict in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia but there has been no word of progress so far.

The talks are facilitated by Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa and former President of Nigeria, along with former President Uhuru Kenyatta of the Republic of Kenya and former Deputy President Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of South Africa. The talks are expected to end on 30 October.

Representatives of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the United Nations (UN) and the Government of the United States of America (USA) are participating as observers to the peace process, a statement by Mr. Faki Mahamat said.

-0- PANA MA 2Oct2022