UN rights chief deplores abuse reports in Tigray

GENEVA (Reuters) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday said she was “deeply disturbed” by reports of continued violations, including executions, in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region. A long-awaited joint investigation should be ready by August, she said.

Abuses had been committed by all sides in the conflict in the northern region, Bachelet said, adding that there were “credible reports” Eritrean soldiers were still there, despite a promise to leave.

There was no immediate comment from the Ethiopian or Eritrean delegations at the UN Human Rights Council, which Bachelet was addressing in Geneva.

Ethiopia’s government has said it will hold those who commit abuses accountable and that more than 50 soldiers are on trial for either rape or killing civilians in Tigray. It has not released any details of those cases.

The government has been fighting the region’s former governing party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front since November. The UN says some 350,000 people face famine there, which borders Sudan and Eritrea.

Ethiopians went to the polls on Monday, but there is no date for voting in Tigray amid the unrest.

There had been reports of executions of civilians, sexual violence against children and forced displacement in Tigray, Bachelet said as she opened a three-week session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

She said she expected a joint investigation with the state-run Ethiopian Human Rights Commission would end in August and be made public.

Eritrean forces have been helping Ethiopian federal government troops in the conflict. Eritrea denied their presence until April.