Ethiopia: Ethnic minority rounded up in detention facilities | DW News

Thousands of Tigrayans are being forcibly expelled, detained or killed in a fresh wave of ethnic violence in the western part of Ethiopia's Tigray region, two rights groups warned on Thursday. In a joint statement, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) blamed armed groups from Amhara, which are aligned with Ethiopia's military, for the abuses.

Western Tigray has seen some of the worst violence in the 13-month war between Ethiopia's military, aided by forces from the Amhara and Afar regions and Tigrayan forces (TPLF). "Tigrayan civilians attempting to escape the new wave of violence have been attacked and killed. Scores in detention face life-threatening conditions including torture, starvation, and denial of medical care," HRW and Amnesty International said. They spoke to 31 people in western Tigray who described the surge of abuses.

According to witnesses, whose stories were partly corroborated by satellite imagery, Amhara security forces, including the region's police and members of local militia, Fano, rounded people up and took people to makeshift detention sites.

One former detainee, who escaped from the sites, told the rights groups he knew of 30 people who died while he was held there, including seven of the 200 men in his cell. A government spokesman denied Amhara security forces were responsible for the attack. He told Reuters news agency the abuses were committed by Tigrayan forces.

Rights groups have accused fighters on all sides of carrying out atrocities including sexual violence, extrajudicial murder and ethnically motivated crimes. Last week HRW accused TPLF fighters of summarily executing dozens of civilians in two Amhara towns they briefly controlled between August and September.

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#Ethiopia #Tigray #WarCrimes