[ad_1]
(Add comment from Prime Minister, details)
NAIROBI, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission said Tuesday that a group of Tigray youth stabbed, strangled and beat up some 600 civilians with the collusion of local security forces during a mass slaughter in the city of Mai Kadra.
The November 9 attack, first reported by the human rights group Amnesty International, was targeting residents of non-Tigrayan origin, the commission said. He called the attack a “massacre” and said the accounts of survivors and witnesses suggested that the killings were part of a “widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population.”
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called in a tweet that “the international community condemn these heinous acts of crimes against humanity.”
Reuters could not immediately verify the accounts because telephone and Internet connections to the region are down and access is strictly controlled since clashes broke out between government troops and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces on November 4th.
Reuters was unable to reach local Tigray leaders for comment. The TPLF has previously denied any responsibility for the killings.
Amnesty declined to comment on the Ethiopian commission’s findings.
In a November 12 report, Amnesty said that dozens and possibly hundreds of civilians were stabbed and hacked to death in the region on November 9. He said he had not been able to independently confirm who was responsible, but said witnesses had blamed loyal fighters. to the local leaders of Tigray, apparently after having suffered a defeat by the federal forces.
Mai Kadra is located in the southwestern part of Tigray, a northern state bordering Sudan and Eritrea. Hundreds have died, more than 41,000 have fled to Sudan and there has been widespread destruction and uprooting of people from their homes in the three-week war in Tigray.
Mai Kadra is claimed by both the Tigrayans and members of the Amhara ethnic group.
Some refugees from Tigray have said they were attacked by people from the Amhara region, which borders Tigray and whose leaders back Abiy. Reuters was unable to independently confirm their accounts. A spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office said such reports could be disinformation from TPLF.
“GREAT FEAR”
The Ethiopian commission said that people of Amhara origin, many of them seasonal workers in the sesame and millet farms in the area, had been subjected to “great fear and pressure” since the first day of the conflict and had been prohibited from circulating. freely around the city. .
On the morning of the attack, local police began closing all exit points in Mai Kadra and checking residents’ identity cards to “differentiate people of non-Tigray origin from the rest,” according to the report, citing the residents. residents.
In the afternoon, a group of Tigray youth identified in the report as “Samri”, along with local police and militiamen, went to a neighborhood in the city where most non-Tigrayans live, he said.
The attack began with the execution of an Amhara farmer, who was killed in front of his family before his house was burned down and his body burned, according to the report, citing interviews with the man’s wife and eyewitnesses.
Members of Samri, aided by police and the militia, then went from house to house carrying out attacks, he said.
“They killed hundreds of people, beating them with truncheons, sticks, stabbing them with knives, machetes and axes, and strangling them with ropes. They also looted and destroyed property,” the report says.
Reuters was unable to independently verify any details about the group referred to as Samri in the report.
Some Tigrayan residents helped neighbors survive by sheltering them in their homes, churches and farms, according to the report.
The commission said its report was compiled after a team of human rights experts visited Mai Kadra between November 14 and 19, taking testimony from victims, witnesses and first responders.
The commission is led by Daniel Bekele, a former political prisoner appointed by Abiy last year. Bekele held senior positions in watchdog Human Rights Watch and Amnesty before returning home to take office. (Editing by William Maclean, Jon Boyle and Nick Tattersall)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
