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Two explosions hit cities in Ethiopia’s Amhara state, neighboring the northern state of Tigray, where federal troops are fighting local forces, and the human rights commission has warned against rights violations in the conflict.
Hundreds of people have died in clashes since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the national defense force on an offensive against well-trained local troops in Tigray on November 4, after accusing them of attacking a federal military base in the area.
The explosions in Amhara occurred in Bahir Dar and Gondar late on Friday, the Amhara communications office and the state news service said.
Investigations had begun to establish whether the blasts were related to the fighting in Tigray, the Amhara communications office said, without giving details of the victims.
The forces of the regional state of Amhara have been fighting alongside their federal counterparts against the forces of the ruling Tigray party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The United Nations, the African Union and others are concerned that the fighting could spread to other parts of the second most populous country in Africa and destabilize the broader Horn of Africa region.
More than 14,500 people have fled to neighboring Sudan, and the speed of the new arrivals “exceeds the current capacity to provide aid,” the UN refugee agency said.
The government-appointed but independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said it was dispatching a team of investigators to the town of Mai Kadra in Tigray, where Amnesty International reported evidence of mass killings.
The massacre of civilians denounced by Amnesty would amount to war crimes if it is confirmed that it was committed by one of the belligerent forces, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Friday.
The Ethiopian commission will investigate any human rights violations in the conflict, it said in a statement, adding that there was a “reasonable risk of ethnic profiling” related to the military standoff.
