Ethiopia’s leader says atrocities reported in Tigray war
Ethiopia’s leader on Tuesday said atrocities have been reported in Tigray, his first public acknowledgment of possible war crimes in the country’s northern region where fighting persists as government troops hunt down its fugitive leaders.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also admitted, after repeated denials by authorities, that troops from neighboring Eritrea have gone into Tigray, where their presence has inflicted “damages” on the region’s residents.
“Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in Tigray region,” Abiy said in an address before lawmakers in the capital, Addis Ababa. War is “a nasty thing,” he said, speaking the local Amharic language. “We know the destruction this war has caused.” He said soldiers who raped women or committed other crimes will be held responsible, even though he cited “propaganda of exaggeration” by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the once-dominant party whose leaders challenged Abiy’s legitimacy after the postponement of elections last year.
Commenting on the reported presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia, Abiy said they crossed the border and moved across Tigray, “causing damages to our people … We won’t accept that.”
He suggested the Eritrean soldiers are not there with his blessing. “The argument the Eritrean
government presents for this is that it is a national security issue because Ethiopian troops are going after [Tigrayan] forces in other locations, so they want to keep controlling border areas,” he said. “But they have told us they don’t have the willingness to stay as long as we control trenches along the border.”
Abiy spoke as concern grows over the humanitarian situation in the embattled region that’s home to 6 million of Ethiopia’s over 110 million people. Authorities haven’t cited a death toll; a trio of opposition groups in Tigray say over 50,000 have been killed.