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The human rights organization bases its report on interviews with witnesses. Some of them were attacked and injured, but survived.
Bodies were found in the center of Mai Kadra and in mass graves on the outskirts of the city.
A state human rights commission said on Tuesday that 600 civilians were killed and that the culprits were a youth gang that supports the regional government in Tigray.
In northern Ethiopia, a war is raging between the local militia and the government army. Federal forces fight soldiers from the party that controls the region, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF)
Both sides of the dispute in Ethiopia’s Tigray province report military victories. The picture will show the Ethiopian government forces.
Photo: Ethiopian Army / AP
– Civilians died, not soldiers
Amnesty told Reuters they did not want to comment on the state commission report. The human rights organization has previously said that it cannot determine with certainty who was behind the killings.
But some of those who have testified for Amnesty have claimed that the killers belonged to forces loyal to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF).
According to these witnesses, they were attacked by special forces of the police of the Tigray region and by activists of the TPLF.
– We have received confirmation that a large number of civilians were killed. They were not involved in any way in the hostilities, says Deprose Muchena, Amnesty regional director for East Africa and South Africa.
UN Security Council without declaration
The UN Security Council discussed the war in the Tigray region on Tuesday. There was no joint statement after the meeting.
Ethiopia’s prime minister issued an ultimatum Sunday night.
Photo: Tiksa Negeri / Reuters
– An announcement could complicate the situation, an African diplomat told news agencies after the meeting.
The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, has demanded the condemnation of the massacre, calling it “abuse and a crime against humanity”.
It is difficult to verify what is happening in the Tigray region. Telephone and Internet connections to the region are lost.
He is one of 40,000 from Tigray who have fled to Sudan due to the war.
Photo: Ashraf Shazly / AFP
72 ultimatum timers
On Sunday night, the Prime Minister and winner of last year’s Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed, issued an ultimatum to the TPLF.
“We ask you to surrender peacefully within 72 hours,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said, according to Reuters.
There is no indication that the TPLF’s military and political leaders are giving up. Reuters writes that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) is building defense positions in and around the provincial capital, Mekele.
The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), Debretsion Gebremichael, says the militia will continue to fight, writes the BBC.
The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), Debretsion Gebremichael will not give up.
Photo: Tiksa Negeri / Reuters
Debretsion Gebremichael denies that the provincial capital of Mekele is surrounded by government forces.
– The Prime Minister does not understand who we are. We are people with principles, we are willing to die to defend the right to manage our region, the TPLF leader is said to have told the AFP news agency.
The TPLF had been in power in Ethiopia for about 30 years. The TPLF seized power from a communist regime in 1991. The party gained much less power after Abiy became prime minister in 2018.
One of the founders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) lives in Norway. But now he supports the government army and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“I think Abiy has massive support from the majority of Ethiopians for this military campaign,” Ghidey Zeratsion told Bistandsaktuelt.
