Report: Ethiopia’s war leads to ethnic cleansing in Tigray
NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopian officials and allied militia fighters are leading a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in Tigray, the war-torn region in northern Ethiopia, according to an internal U.S. government report obtained by The New York Times.
The report, written this month, documents in stark terms a land of looted houses and deserted villages where tens of thousands of people are unaccounted for.
Fighters and officials from the neighboring Amhara region of Ethiopia, who entered Tigray in support of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, are “deliberately and efficiently rendering Western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organized use of force and intimidation,” the report says.
“Whole villages were severely damaged or completely erased,” the report said.
In a second report, published Friday, Amnesty International said soldiers from Eritrea had systematically killed hundreds of
Tigrayan civilians in the ancient city of Axum over a 10-day period in November, shooting some of them in the streets.
The worsening situation in Tigray — where Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, launched a surprise military offensive in November — is shaping up to be the Biden administration’s first major test in Africa.
In a call with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya on Thursday, Biden brought up the Tigray crisis. The two leaders discussed “the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights crises in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the need to prevent further loss of life and ensure humanitarian access,” a White House statement said.
But thus far, Biden and other U.S. officials have been reluctant to openly criticize Ahmed’s conduct of the war, while European leaders and United Nations officials, worried about reports of widespread atrocities, have been increasingly outspoken.
Ethiopia routinely dismisses critics of its campaign in Tigray as stooges of its foes in Tigray.
But Friday, in response to the Amnesty International report, Ahmed’s office said it was ready to collaborate in an international investigation into atrocities in Tigray. The government “reiterates its commitment to enabling a stable and peaceful region,” it said in a statement.
Ahmed’s office also claimed that Ethiopia has given “unfettered” access to international aid groups in Tigray — in contrast with U.N. officials who estimate that 20% of the region can be reached by aid groups because of government-imposed restrictions.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ahmed by phone Feb. 4 and urged him to allow humanitarian access to Tigray, the State Department said.
Alex de Waal, an expert on the Horn of Africa at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, said it is time for the United States to urgently focus on the crisis in Tigray, before more atrocities are committed.
“What is needed is political leadership at the highest level, and that means the U.S.,” he said.