KAMPALA – According to eyewitnesses and aid workers, Ethiopia’s federal military allies are looting property and carrying out mass detentions in Tigray.
The reports raise new concerns about alleged atrocities more than three weeks after the warring parties signed a truce that diplomats and others hoped would end suffering in the embattled region of more than 5 million people.
Tigray remains largely isolated from the rest of Ethiopia, though aid deliveries into the region resumed following the November 2 cease-fire agreement signed in South Africa. Human rights researchers have limited or no access to the region, making it difficult for journalists and others to obtain information from Tigray as Ethiopian forces maintain control of the region.
Eritrean troops and forces from the neighboring Ethiopian region of Amhara, who have been fighting alongside Ethiopia’s federal military in the Tigray conflict, have looted businesses, private properties, vehicles, and health clinics in Shire, a northwestern town captured from Tigray forces last month, according to two aid workers who spoke on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.
According to aid workers, Eritrean troops kidnapped several young people in Shire. One witness reported seeing “more than 300” youths rounded up by Ethiopian federal troops in several waves of mass detentions following the capture of Shire, home to a large number of internally displaced people.
“There are different detention centers around town,” the aid worker said, adding that Ethiopian federal troops were arresting people suspected of being “associated” with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, the political party whose leaders led the war against the federal government.
Civilians accused of assisting Tigray forces are being detained in Alamata, according to a resident who claims Amhara forces have arrested several of his friends. According to a former regional official, Amhara forces are also making “mass” arrests in Korem, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Alamata, and in surrounding rural areas.
Both the Alamata resident and the former regional official, like others who spoke to AP, requested anonymity out of concern for their safety and fear of retaliation.
The continued presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray is a source of contention in the ongoing peace process, and the US has demanded that they leave the region.
Ethiopia’s military spokesman and government communications minister did not respond to requests for comment. The Eritrean embassy in Ethiopia did not respond either.
The text of the cease-fire agreement made no mention of Eritrea, which shares a border with Tigray. The absence of Eritrea from the cease-fire talks raised concerns about whether the country’s repressive government, which has long viewed Tigray authorities as a threat, would uphold the agreement.
According to a subsequent implementation agreement signed by Kenyan military commanders, Tigray forces will disarm their heavy weapons “concurrently with the withdrawal of foreign and non-(federal) forces from the region.”
Nonetheless, aid officials, diplomats, and others on the ground in Tigray say Eritrean forces are still active in several areas of the country, jeopardizing the peace process. Eritrean troops have been blamed for some of the worst atrocities committed during the conflict, including gang rapes.
Tigrai Television, a regional broadcaster based in Mekele, Tigray, reported on Nov. 19 that Eritrean soldiers killed 63 civilians, including 10 children, in Egela, central Tigray. That report cited witnesses, including one who claimed that affected communities were being denied the right to bury their dead.
According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the importance of implementing the peace deal, “including the withdrawal of all foreign forces and the concurrent disarmament of Tigray forces,” in a phone call Monday.
On November 17, Eritrean forces killed four youths in the northwestern Tigray town of Axum, according to a humanitarian worker. “Despite the peace agreement, the killings have not stopped… “It is carried out solely by Eritrean forces in Axum,” the humanitarian worker explained.
According to a statement issued by Tigray’s communication bureau last week, Eritrea’s military “continues to commit horrific atrocities in Tigray.” According to the statement, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki is “bringing more units into Tigray, though (he) is expected to withdraw his troops” following the cease-fire agreement.
After months of lull, the brutal fighting in Tigray resumed in August after spilling into the Amhara and Afar regions as Tigray forces pressed toward the federal capital.
After two years of aid restrictions, Tigray is in the grip of a dire humanitarian crisis. Because of these restrictions, a UN panel of experts concluded that Ethiopia’s government most likely used “starvation as a method of warfare” against the region.
Ethiopian authorities have long denied targeting civilians in Tigray, claiming that their primary goal is to apprehend the region’s rebel leaders.
Despite the African Union-led cease-fire, most parts of Tigray still lack basic services such as phone, electricity, and banking. The US estimates that hundreds of thousands of people may have been killed in the war, which was marred by atrocities on all sides.
The cease-fire agreement calls for federal authorities to allow “unhindered humanitarian access” to Tigray. Since the agreement, the World Food Program has sent 96 trucks of food and fuel to Tigray, though access to parts of central and eastern Tigray remains “constrained.”
Despite the number of trucks entering the region, unrestricted access into Tigray has not yet been granted, according to an aid worker on Friday. The amount of cash humanitarian organizations can bring into Tigray is limited, and checkpoints and military commanders impede aid workers’ movements within the region, according to the aid worker.
Source: AP