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NEW YORK, February 5: A senior United Nations official warned on Friday that “the risk of heinous crimes in Ethiopia remains high and will likely worsen” if the country does not urgently combat ethnic violence, stigmatization, hate speech and religious tensions.
The UN’s special adviser for genocide prevention, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, said she had received reports of serious human rights violations and abuses committed by parties to the conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia and their allies.
“These include extrajudicial killings, sexual violence, property looting, mass executions and impeded humanitarian access,” Nderitu said in a statement, adding that he had also received “disturbing reports of attacks against civilians based on their religion and
ethnicity ”in other parts of the country.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered airstrikes and a ground offensive against Tigray’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), after regional forces attacked federal army bases in the region on 4 November.
The TPLF withdrew from the regional capital Mekelle and major cities, but the low-level fighting has continued. Both sides deny that their forces committed atrocities and blame other forces for the slaughter of civilians.
In the region of more than five million people, thousands of people are believed to have died and 950,000 have fled their homes since the fighting began.
UN aid chief Mark Lowcock warned the UN Security Council on Wednesday that the conflict in Tigray could trigger more widespread destabilization in the country and that the dire humanitarian situation in the north will worsen.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Friday that the UN and aid groups have about 80 humanitarian workers in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, who have been waiting for more than a month for government approval to travel. to Tigray.
“We continue to commit ourselves and call on the Government for immediate, safe and unhindered access to humanitarian personnel and supplies throughout Tigray,” he said. Reuters
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