ADDIS ABABA –Evidence is mounting of a pattern of TPLF forces committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in areas under their control in the Amhara State from July 2021 onwards, Amnesty International (AI) disclosed.
In its new investigation report, the AI revealed that TPLF forces deliberately killed dozens of people, gang-raped dozens of women and girls, and looted private and public property in Chena and Kobo towns of the Amhara State. The atrocities were perpetrated in and around Chena and Kobo in late August and early September 2021, shortly after the rebellious group took control of the areas in July.
The attacks were often characterized by additional acts of violence and brutality, death threats, and the use of ethnic slurs and derogatory remarks, the report added.
Amnesty International’s East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes Deputy Regional Director Sarah Jackson said Tigrayan forces have shown utter disregard for fundamental rules of international humanitarian law which all warring parties must follow. Crimes of TPLF fighters include repeated incidents of widespread rape, summary killings and looting, including from hospitals.
“The TPLF leadership must put an immediate end to the atrocities we have documented and remove from its forces anyone suspected of involvement in such crimes.”
According to the report, in Kobo town, the dissidents deliberately killed unarmed civilians, seemingly in revenge for losses among their ranks at the hands of Amhara militias and armed farmers. Ten Kobo residents told AI that in the afternoon of 9 September 2021, TPLF forces summarily killed their relatives and neighbors outside their homes.
Twelve other Kobo residents said for their part that they found the bodies of local residents and laborers who had been killed, and the execution styles were shot in the head, chest or back and some with their hands tied behind their backs.“There were 20 bodies lying in their underwear and facing the school fence and three more bodies in the school compound, and most were shot at the back of their heads and some in the back,” one male resident stated.
The report further highlighted that deliberate killings of civilians – or of captured, surrendered, or wounded fighters – constitute war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
From July 2021 onwards, in and around Chena town of the Amhara State, fighters of the terrorist TPLF group raped dozens of women and girls as young as 14, often in the victims’ own homes after having forced them to provide food and cook for them. The sexual violence was accompanied by shocking levels of brutality, including beatings, death threats, and ethnic slurs.
Fourteen of the 30 survivors interviewed by AI said that they were gang-raped by multiple TPLF fighters, and some were raped in front of their children. Seven of the survivors were girls under the age of 18. Lucy, a 14-year-old seventh-grade student, noted that she and her mother were both raped by TPLF fighters in their home in Did-Bahr.
Selam, a 29-year-old woman, described how four terrorist TPLF fighters locked her older parents in a separate room and then gang-raped her over a 15-hour period.
In both Kobo and the Chena towns, residents told AI that TPLF fighters stole possessions from their homes and shops and looted and vandalized public properties, including medical clinics and schools. The looting and damage to medical facilities made it impossible for rape survivors and other residents in need of medical care to obtain treatment locally, the report remarked.
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
THURSDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2022
