The United States has concluded that the armed forces of Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as Tigrayan rebels, committed war crimes during the two years of bloody conflict in the Tigray region, the head of diplomacy announced on Monday March 20. American, Antony Blinken, a few days after his visit to this country.
“Many of these acts were not random or the result of an indirect consequence of the war. They were calculated and deliberate,” the US Secretary of State told reporters on the occasion of the release of the State Department’s annual report on human rights. He said the State Department conducted a “thorough investigation of the law and the facts” and concluded that these war crimes were committed by all parties involved, including forces from the surrounding area of Amhara.
Mr. Blinken also referred to “crimes against humanity” committed by Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara forces, but made no mention of the Tigrayan rebels. “We urge the governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as the TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front rebel movement] to hold accountable those responsible for these atrocities,” he said.
A “devastating” conflict
“The conflict in northern Ethiopia has been devastating. Men, women and children were killed. Women and girls have been subjected to unprecedented forms of sexual violence. Thousands of people have been forcibly displaced. Entire communities have been targeted because of their ethnicity,” he continued. The exact toll is difficult to assess, but the United States estimates that some 500,000 people died during this conflict.
Visiting Addis Ababa last week, Blinken did not explicitly refer to war crimes or crimes against humanity and called for “reconciliation” and establishing “accountability” for the atrocities of the Tigray conflict. . He had notably spoken at length with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, with whom Washington has complicated relations, then with representatives of the rebel authorities of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia.
The two parties have promised to implement the peace agreement signed on November 2, 2022 in Pretoria, which ended two years of deadly conflict, he then assured. Asked why he did not report war crimes when he was there, Mr. Blinken dodged saying that it was “appropriate” to do so on the occasion of the publication of the annual report on war crimes. human rights.
Speaking of a “long-awaited” qualification, Republican Congressman James Risch, a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, in a statement lamented the “inaction” of the US government and called for sanctions. “Unfortunately, this administration has yet to take action to hold the Ethiopians responsible for these heinous crimes against thousands of innocent civilians to account,” he said.
‘Genocide’ in Xinjiang
Mr. Blinken was the most senior American official to visit the second most populous country in Africa since the outbreak of the war in Tigray in November 2020. Abiy Ahmed had at that time sent the federal army to Tigray, accusing the authorities regional authorities, who had been challenging his power for several months, of having attacked military bases there.
The region was ruled by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that de facto governed Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018, gradually marginalized by Mr. Abiy. The conflict spilled over into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, whose forces supported the federal army, also supported by the army of Eritrea, a historical enemy of the TPLF.
In its annual report, mandated by the US Congress, the State Department further accuses Russia of “mass destruction” in Ukraine since its invasion of the country in February 2022 and the Russian armed forces of “summary executions of civilians (… ) and sexual violence against women and children”.
China is also targeted, with Washington accusing Beijing of continuing to carry out “genocide and crimes against humanity” against the Uighur Muslim minority in Xinjiang province, as well as Iran for its “violent crackdown” on protests. after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested in September 2022 for violating the dress code. Burma, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Cambodia, Cuba and Venezuela are also in the dock.
