Etiopia

All sides in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict have violated international human rights, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity, a new report states.

Extra-judicial executions, torture, rape, and attacks against refugees and displaced people were documented.

A joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the UN Human Rights Office said there could also be evidence of war crimes.

The war broke out on 4 November 2020.

It started when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy ordered an offensive against regional forces in northern Tigray region.

Government forces initially routed the rebels, but things changed in June with the Tigrayan fighters making significant territorial gains. They are now reportedly approaching the capital, Addis Ababa.

On Tuesday, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency hours after urging residents of the capital to arm themselves.

The war has created a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of people have been killed, millions displaced and hundreds of thousands in Tigray face famine conditions, according to aid organisations.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the conflict had been marked by extreme brutality and called for a lasting ceasefire.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe all parties to the conflict… either directly attacked civilians and civilian objects, such as houses, schools, hospitals, and places of worship, or carried out indiscriminate attacks resulting in civilian casualties and destruction or damage to civilian objects,” the report states.

Unlawful or extrajudicial killings and executions have also been recorded.

The report details how a Tigrayan youth group known as Samri killed more than 200 ethnic Amhara civilians in Mai Kadra in November last year. Revenge killings were then committed against ethnic Tigrayans in the same town.

The Eritrean army has joined the conflict fighting alongside the Ethiopian government forces. Eritrean soldiers killed more than 100 civilians in Aksum in central Tigray later in November 2020, the report says.

“War crimes may have been committed since there are reasonable grounds to believe that persons taking no direct part in hostilities were wilfully killed by parties to the conflict,” the report says.

It also cites cases of sexual violence including gang rape committed by both sides and targeting women, men, girls and boys.

In one incident a 19-year-old woman was detained and raped repeatedly for three months. A case of a woman with disability being sexually assaulted was also reported.

The report says sexual violence was used “to degrade and dehumanise the victims”.

The organisations called on the Ethiopian government to conduct “thorough and effective investigations by independent and impartial bodies into allegations of violations and to hold those responsible accountable”.

Prime Minister Abiy said he ordered the military offensive last November in response to an attack on a military base housing government troops there.

The escalation came after months of feuding between Mr Abiy’s government and leaders of the TPLF, which was the dominant political party in Tigray.

The authorities later labelled the TPLF a terrorist organisation and ruled out any peace talks with them.

The federal government’s renewed ground offensive in recent weeks, including using airstrikes, has failed to halt the rebels’ territorial gains.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Abiy said the government had “serious reservations” about aspects of the joint report but added that his government was “heartened” that the investigation did not establish the claim of genocide against Tigrayans and did not give any evidence that the government had wilfully denied humanitarian assistance to people in Tigray, as some reports have suggested.

The spokesperson for the Tigray People Liberation Front said the report was “fraught with a number of problems,” saying that the involvement of the EHRC was an “affront to the notion of impartiality”.

“L’acqua dell’Egitto è una linea rossa” e “nessuno è fuori dalla nostra portata”. Il presidente egiziano Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ha lanciato un bellicoso monito all’Etiopia, praticamente una minaccia di attacco militare, sul riempimento della maxi-diga etiopica “Gerd” che ridurrà la portata d’acqua del Nilo, vitale per l’Egitto.

Il capo di Stato egiziano ha alzato la voce con Addis Abeba sfruttando il megafono di una conferenza stampa indetta a Ismailia per auto-celebrare il successo dell’Egitto nel rimettere in navigazione il portacontainer Ever Given e sbloccare il Canale di Suez, così importante per il commercio mondiale. “Non abbiamo mai minacciato e non sto minacciando”, ha frenato Sisi in palese contraddizione con le sue stesse parole: “A nessuno sarà permesso di prendere una singola goccia dell’acqua dell’Egitto, altrimenti la regione cadrà in un’inimmaginabile instabilità”, ha detto. Il leader egiziano ha ammesso di non essere mai stato così duro (“Non ho mai parlato così”), anche se in passato aveva avvertito che per l’aridissimo Egitto l’acqua del Nilo “è questione di vita o di morte”.

Dal grande fiume africano l’Egitto trae circa il 97% dell’acqua usata per irrigare e bere: una risorsa esistenziale che viene intaccata dalla “Gerd”, l’acronimo inglese che sta per “Diga del Grande Rinascimento Etiope”. La maxi-opera sul Nilo azzurro, di cui il gruppo Salini Impregilo (ora Webuild) è uno dei due “main contractors”, è la più grande diga d’Africa: lunga 1.800 metri, alta 175 e con un volume complessivo di 10 milioni di metri cubi d’acqua. La sua centrale idroelettrica è considerata vitale dall’Etiopia per dare elettricità ai suoi 110 milioni di abitanti.

Da anni sono in sostanziale stallo negoziati soprattutto sulla velocità del riempimento dell’invaso, da cui dipende la riduzione della portata d’acqua a disposizione dell’Egitto e dell’altro Paese a valle, il Sudan. Con un politica dei fatti compiuti che irrita l’Egitto, Addis Abeba nel luglio scorso aveva annunciato di aver centrato il proprio obbiettivo di riempimento per il primo anno e di voler andare avanti con la seconda fase anche senza un accordo a 3 con il Cairo e Khartoum. Come ribadito dal premier etiope Abiy Ahmed la settimana scorsa, l’Etiopia non vuole danneggiare gli altri due Paesi e il suo ministero degli Esteri ha appena confermato che Addis Abeba rimane impegnata a colloqui che coinvolgono l’Unione africana.

 

Due ex gerarchi del regime del dittatore etiope Menghistu sono usciti dopo 30 anni dall’ambasciata italiana in Etiopia, dove si erano rifugiati per sfuggire alla pena di morte, dopo aver ricevuto la grazia. Sono Berhanu Bayeh e Addis Tedla, rispettivamente ministro degli Esteri e capo di stato maggiore del ‘Negus Rosso’. Per il loro ruolo nelle uccisioni di massa durante gli anni del terrore sono stati giudicati colpevoli di genocidio. La loro storia è venuta alla luce soltanto due anni fa con la pubblicazione del libro ‘I noti ospiti’, così venivano chiamati negli ambienti diplomatici italiani i due funzionari etiopi, scritto dall’ex ambasciatore in Etiopia Giuseppe Mistretta e dall’ex primo segretario dell’ambasciata italiana ad Addis Abeba, Giuliano Fragnito.

La più lunga saga diplomatica in materia di asilo inizia il 26 maggio del 1991. Dopo 14 anni di terrore, violenze e sangue il dittatore Menghitsu fugge in Zimbabwe, dove vive ancora oggi in un esilio dorato nonostante la condanna a morte in contumacia nel 2008. Il suo ministro degli Esteri e il capo di stato maggiore cercano rifugio, assieme ad altri otto funzionari, presso l’ambasciata italiana ad Addis Abeba. L’allora ambasciatore, Sergio Angeletti, li accoglie in base a un principio della nostra Costituzione che sancisce non si possono consegnare prigionieri che rischiano la pena di morte anche se la condanna vera e propria per Bayeh e Tedla è arrivata solo nel 2006. Il nuovo presidente dell’Etiopia Meles Zenwai chiede il rilascio immediato dei funzionari, 6 di loro escono volontariamente. Tra quelli che restano all’ambasciata italiana ci sono anche il tenente generale Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, ex ministro della Difesa, e Hailu Yimenu, primo ministro ad interim e comandante dell’esercito in Eritrea. Quest’ultimo si è suicidato impiccandosi al cancello dell’ambasciata un mese dopo. Gebr Kidan sarebbe stato ucciso durante una lite da Bayeh che lo avrebbe colpito in testa con una bottiglia.

In questi 30 anni il governo etiope ha chiesto ripetutamente all’Italia la consegna di Bayeh e Tedla, oggi 82 e 74 anni. Il ministro degli Esteri Luigi Di Maio ha espresso soddisfazione per la conclusione della vicenda e per la concessione da parte del governo etiope della libertà condizionale ai due ex gerarchi. Secondo Amnesty International durante il regime di Menghitsu, ‘il macellaio di Adis Abeba’, sono stati uccise 50.000 persone oltre 100.000 sono state incarcerate e torturate.

The rulers of Ethiopia’s rebellious Tigray region refused to surrender to federal troops and instead claimed they were winning a war that has further destabilised the Horn of Africa.

“Tigray is now a hell to its enemies. The people of Tigray will never kneel”, they said in a statement on Wednesday.

Prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s government is also claiming major victories. The government said its forces are marching on Tigray’s capital Mekelle and will triumph shortly.

Abiy, 44, ordered air strikes and sent soldiers into Tigray on November 4 after accusing the local ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of revolt and an attack on a government base. The TPLF said civilians had been killed in the attacks, allegations the task force denied.

TULI GULED, Ethiopia (Reuters) – First, drought in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region destroyed Asha Khalif Ali’s crops and animals. Then her husband and brother were killed in ethnic violence. She fled with her seven children, the youngest on her back, and watched their small faces grow gaunt with hunger as they sought safety.

Scientists and humanitarians say Asha’s story – of a once prosperous family endlessly buffeted by the intertwined plagues of climate change and violence –  will become more familiar around the world as repeated disasters push families into competition for ever-scarcer resources.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Jan. 21 the world needs to prepare for “millions” more climate change refugees and cited a U.N. ruling this month that such people deserved international protection.

Behind each number lies a story of suffering.

For Asha, the drought that ended two years ago exacerbated simmering tensions over resources between ethnic groups. After gunmen from a rival ethnic group killed her husband, she fled into the mountains with her children.

They marched barefoot for five days. The children’s feet bled; her milk dried up. When they finally reached a safe village, Asha collapsed. She and four of her children were hospitalized.

They found refuge in the village of Tuli Guled in the eastern Somali region, where the International Committee of the Red Cross gave them seeds and tools. Then heavy rains and desert locusts destroyed her crop and her hope.

“Life has changed a lot since the seasons changed. Food is more expensive. We used to have three meals a day. Now I can only afford one,” Asha said, sitting on three bags of rotten wheat. Her two youngest children squirmed in her lap as she struggled to hold back tears.

“I fear my children may starve.”

INTER-ETHNIC VIOLENCE

The World Meteorological Organization says more extreme weather events linked to temperature rises of 3-5 degrees Celsius can be expected if carbon dioxide emissions, which hit a new record in 2018, keep rising at the current rate.

Ethiopia had the highest number of new internally displaced people in the world in 2018 – 2.9 million – according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center. Some fled drought or floods, others fled clashes.

It’s hard to measure the impact of climate change on violence, and it is not the cause of all inter-ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia, which have flared since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power in April 2018.

His political and economic reforms, though widely praised, have also unleashed long-repressed tensions among Ethiopia’s myriad ethnic groups as they lay claim to disputed territory.

However, recent data and testimonies from displaced people such as Asha demonstrate the complex interaction between climate change and violence.

“Many make the link today between their experience of violent conflicts and climate change,” said Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, as he toured Ethiopian villages devastated by violence, drought, heavy rains and desert locusts.

“The struggle over less productive land is at the origin of much of what they suffer.”

Editing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Gareth Jones