UN experts say Ethiopia’s conflict and Tigray fighting left over 10,000 survivors of sexual violence

A Tigrayan refugee rape victim who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray sits for a portrait in eastern Sudan near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, March 20, 2021. U.N.-backed human rights experts say that war crimes continue in Ethiopia despite a peace deal signed nearly a year ago to end a devastating conflict that also engulfed the country’s Tigray region. The violence has left at least 10,000 people affected by rape and other sexual violence — mostly women and girls. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

BY JAMEY KEATON

GENEVA (AP) — U.N.-backed human rights experts say war crimes continue in Ethiopia despite a peace deal signed nearly a year ago to end a devastating conflict that has also engulfed the country’s Tigray region. The violence has left at least 10,000 people affected by rape and other sexual violence — mostly women and girls.

The experts’ report, published on Monday, comes against the backdrop of an uncertain future for the team of investigators who wrote it: The U.N. Human Rights Council is set to decide early next month whether to extend the team’s mandate in the face of efforts by the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to end it.

The violence erupted in November 2020, centering largely — though not exclusively — on the northern Tigray region, which for months was shut off from the outside world. The report cites atrocities by all sides in the war, including mass killings, rape, starvation, and destruction of schools and medical facilities.

Mohamed Chande Othman, chairman of the international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia, said the situation remains “extremely grave” despite a peace accord signed in November.

”While the signing of the agreement may have mostly silenced the guns, it has not resolved the conflict in the north of the country, in particular in Tigray, nor has it brought about any comprehensive peace,” he said.



“Violent confrontations are now at a near-national scale, with alarming reports of violations against civilians in the Amhara region and on-going atrocities in Tigray,” Othman added.

The report said troops from neighboring Eritrea and militia members from Ethiopia’s Amhara militia continue to commit grave violations in Tigray, including the “systematic rape and sexual violence of women and girls.”

Commissioner Radhika Coomaraswamy said the presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia showed not only “an entrenched policy of impunity, but also continued support for and tolerance of such violations by the federal government.”

“Entire families have been killed, relatives forced to watch horrific crimes against their loved ones, while whole communities have been displaced or expelled from their homes,” she said.

Citing consolidated estimates from seven health centers in Tigray alone, the commission said more than 10,000 survivors of sexual violence sought care between the start of the conflict and July this year.

But accountability and trust in the justice system in Ethiopia have been lacking.

The commission said it knows of only 13 completed and 16 pending military court cases addressing sexual violence committed during the conflict.

The figures in the report offer a sweeping look at a conflict that was known to be rife with cases of sexual violence, even after the signing of the peace deal.

Ethiopia has also announced a state of emergency in the Amhara region last month, and the experts said they have received reports of “mass arbitrary detention of Amhara civilians,” including at least one drone strike carried by government forces.

Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous region, has been gripped by instability since April, when federal authorities moved to disarm its security forces following the end of the war in neighboring Tigray.

“This evolving situation has huge implications for stability in Ethiopia and the wider region, and in particular the tens of millions of women, men, and children who call it home,” Othman said, and stressed the need for continued monitoring.

Scores Of Women And Girls Were Sexually Assaulted After Peace Deal In Ethiopia’s Tigray, Study Shows

FILE - A Tigrayan refugee rape victim who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray sits for a portrait in eastern Sudan near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, March 20, 2021. A new study of medical records released Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 shows that at least 128 women and girls were sexually assaulted in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region even after a peace agreement ended a two-year conflict there. Most were sexually assaulted by multiple people, and almost all believe their attackers belonged to military groups. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Scores of women and girls in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region were sexually assaulted, often by multiple men alleged to be combatants, after a peace agreement last year ended the conflict there, according to a new study of medical records released on Thursday.

The youngest girl raped was 8 years old.

The Tigray conflict killed hundreds of thousands of people and left untold thousands of women and girls with the trauma of sexual assault.

At least 128 sexual assaults occurred after the peace agreement was signed last November, according to the study, which looked at records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through June.

With most health facilities destroyed or looted as Ethiopian forces battled Tigray fighters, many women and girls were left without treatment for months. Some now have HIV or are raising the children of their rapists. Others live with incontinence or chronic pain, along with the cultural stigma around such attacks.

The study by Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa, along with a commentary in The Lancet medical journal, looked at more than 300 randomly selected medical records from Tigray health centers focused on helping survivors of sexual violence.

It is just a “small glimpse” of the toll, the authors say, and they fear the chance for justice will be lost if independent accountability efforts by the United Nations and others are shut down.

“All the community is a victim of sexual violence,” a Tigray-based researcher into conflict-related sexual violence told The Associated Press. A collaborator on the study, he has spoken with hundreds of women and girls and said not one feels healed.

“Rape survivors, they are suffering the most,” he said. Like many Tigrayans, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from Ethiopian authorities.

At least 128 sexual assaults occurred after the peace agreement was signed last November, according to the study, which looked at records from the start of the conflict in November 2020 through this June.

Overall, 76% of the 304 women and girls whose cases were reviewed were sexually assaulted by multiple people, often three or more. One was assaulted by 19 men.

In 94% of all cases, no condom was used. Many perpetrators also wielded guns, sticks or knives. Some women and girls were abducted for repeated assaults.

“They took her to their camp and raped her for six months,” one medical record cited by the study says.

Almost all the women and girls said their attackers appeared to be members of a military group, often from neighboring Eritrea, whose soldiers fought alongside Ethiopian forces against Tigray fighters and allegedly remain in parts of western and northern Tigray.

The findings suggest that “these acts were neither isolated nor random but a systematic use of rape as a weapon of war,” the study’s authors write in The Lancet commentary.

Spokesmen for Ethiopia’s and Eritrea’s governments did not respond to requests for comment.

“It is absolutely horrifying and devastating to even read the narratives of the patients,” Ranit Mishori, a senior medical adviser with Physicians for Human Rights, said in an interview. “The brutality didn’t skip the children. Many were also raped by multiple perpetrators.”

Mishori and her colleague, senior program officer Lindsey Green, expressed concern that independent efforts to understand the conflict’s toll and bring accountability to the perpetrators are being weakened or shut down under pressure from authorities.

“Most disturbing to me is the lack of focus on these crimes,” Green said.

Ethiopia’s government is keen to re-engage with key partners such as the United States, the European Union and global financial institutions after the conflict. On Thursday, Ethiopia was announced as an incoming member of the BRICS economic bloc.

But Ethiopia has sharply criticized outside efforts to promote justice and accountability. An African Union human rights inquiry was quietly terminated earlier this year.

Now Ethiopia wants a United Nations inquiry ended, too, human rights experts say.

After a conflict marked by the blockade of the Tigray region of more than 5 million people, with internet and phone links severed and human rights researchers and journalists barred, the lack of independent inquiry means that the civilian toll could remain largely in the shadows as Ethiopia’s government moves on.

“The world has accountability mechanisms, but almost everything is in the hands of diplomats and politicians, which is a recipe for failure,” said Martin Witteveen, an international criminal law expert who worked with the government-created Ethiopian Human Rights Commission until early 2022. He says Ethiopia alone can hardly ensure accountability when its forces and allies committed most of the crimes.

Even now, the study says, survivors of sexual violence in Tigray are still coming forward, but others will never be known.

US Joins UN In Suspending Food Aid To Ethiopia’s Tigray

FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. The United Nations food relief agency has suspended aid deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an internal investigation into the theft of food meant for hungry people, according to four humanitarian workers. (AP Photo, File)

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS) — The United States Agency for International Development suspended all food assistance to the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray “until further notice” while it investigates the theft of humanitarian supplies. The U.N. confirmed earlier reports that it was doing the same.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power said Wednesday that her agency “uncovered that food aid, intended for the people of Tigray suffering under famine-like conditions, was being diverted and sold on the local market.”

After discovering food was missing, the agency alerted its inspector general, who launched an investigation.

“Following this review, USAID determined, in coordination with the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa and our implementing partners, that a temporary pause in food aid was the best course of action,” Power said in a statement.

She added that USAID has raised its concerns with Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray authorities.

Nearly all of Tigray’s 6 million people rely on food aid, after two years of civil war and government-imposed restrictions on humanitarian relief pushed parts of the region to the brink of famine.

The war ended in November with a cease-fire, which also saw aid deliveries resume.

Power told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 26 that the food theft appeared to involve “collusion between parties of both sides of the conflict.”

She did not elaborate on who might be responsible, saying the agency’s investigation was still underway.

Power told the Senate committee that the theft reflected a “systemic failure” by her agency and that much of aid involved was retrieved.

“We know we owe you ample not only accounting for what has happened but also some institution of additional safeguards,” she said.

The theft appeared to have taken place between November and February, after the fighting in Tigray eased, Power said. USAID’s disaster response team was unable to gain access to the region at the time, preventing it from providing oversight, she said.

Last month, The Associated Press reported that the food taken from a warehouse in the Tigray city of Sheraro was enough to feed 100,000 people.

The U.N.’s World Food Program in Ethiopia told its partners on April 20 that it had suspended deliveries to Tigray. Late Wednesday, the U.N. agency confirmed the suspension, which was first reported by the AP.

The World Food Program said its relief efforts in Tigray “will not resume until WFP can ensure that vital aid will reach its intended recipients.”

Getachew Reda, the interim president of Tigray, said he had formed a task force ”to prevent and investigate crimes committed in relation to humanitarian aid and enforce the supremacy of the law.”

He called the diversions of aid “a double injustice and crime that is being done to children, elderly and disabled (people) who are suffering from starvation and sickness.”

The U.S. is the biggest single humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, providing $1.8 billion in humanitarian assistance to the country in the 2022 fiscal year, according to USAID.

In addition to civil conflict, the country is also struggling with a prolonged drought.

Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

UN Agency Suspends Food Aid To Ethiopia’s Tigray Amid Theft

FILE - A worker walks next to a pile of sacks of food earmarked for the Tigray and Afar regions in a warehouse of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Semera, the regional capital for the Afar region, in Semera, Ethiopia, Feb. 21, 2022. The United Nations food relief agency has suspended aid deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an internal investigation into the theft of food meant for hungry people, according to four humanitarian workers. (AP Photo, File)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — The United Nations food relief agency has suspended aid deliveries to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region amid an internal investigation into the theft of food meant for hungry people, according to four humanitarian workers.

The World Food Program is responsible for delivering food from the U.N. and other partners to Tigray, the center of a devastating two-year civil war that ended with a ceasefire in November.

More than 5 million of the region’s 6 million people rely on aid.

WFP informed its humanitarian partners on April 20 that it was temporarily suspending deliveries of food to Tigray amid reports of food misappropriation, one of the four humanitarian workers told AP. Three other aid workers confirmed this information. They all insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to a journalist on this matter.

Last month, AP reported that the WFP was investigating cases of food misappropriation and diversion in Ethiopia, where a total of 20 million people need humanitarian help due to drought and conflict.


A letter sent by the WFP’s Ethiopia director on April 5 asked humanitarian partners to share “any information or cases of food misuse, misappropriation or diversion that you are aware of or that are brought to your attention by your staff, beneficiaries or local authorities.”

At the time, two aid workers told AP that the stolen supplies included enough food to feed 100,000 people. The food was discovered missing from a warehouse in the Tigray city of Sheraro. It was not clear who was responsible for the theft.

Tigray’s new interim president, Getachew Reda, said last month he discussed “the growing challenge of diversion & sale of food aid meant for the needy” with senior WFP officials during a visit by the agency to Mekele, the regional capital.

A spokesperson for the WFP in Ethiopia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UN, Others Cite New Displacement From Ethiopia’s Tigray

FILE - Terraced hills are seen off the road between Gondar and Danshe, a town in an area of western Tigray then annexed by the Amhara region during the ongoing conflict, in Ethiopia on May 1, 2021. Forces from Amhara have displaced tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans from disputed territory in the north of the country in recent weeks, despite a peace deal agreed late last year, according to aid workers and internal agency documents seen by the AP in April 2023. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (AP) — Forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have displaced tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans from disputed territory in the north of the country in recent weeks despite a peace deal agreed late last year, according to aid workers and internal agency documents seen by the AP.

The Mai Tsebri area in northwestern Tigray is close to the regional border with Amhara. It changed hands several times during the war, which erupted in 2020 and ended with a ceasefire in November. The Amhara people claim the area as their own.

Since early March, some 47,000 people uprooted from Mai Tsebri have gone to Endabaguna, a town roughly 55 kilometers (34 miles) further north, according to United Nations figures seen by the AP on Thursday.

Another report, prepared by a humanitarian agency, says residents fled Mai Tsebri because of “harassment, ethnic profiling and direct threats” from irregular Amhara forces that also carried out “evictions.”

That report adds that there have been no aid deliveries to Endabaguna since the displaced people started arriving. As a result, it says, they are “on the brink of starvation.”


The displaced people at Endabaguna are sheltering in a reception center originally built by the U.N. and Ethiopia’s government for refugees from Eritrea, which borders Tigray. The site was badly damaged during the war.

An aid worker who recently visited the center said conditions there were “very bad” and the number of people was “increasing day by day.”

“The roofing and pipelines are damaged, there is no toilet and latrine, the doors and windows of the rooms are looted (or) damaged, and there is no proper water supply,” said the aid worker, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

It was not immediately possible to get a comment from Amhara authorities.

A second aid worker, who also requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to a reporter, said many of the people recently uprooted from Mai Tsebri were displaced for a second time, having already been forced from their homes in the western part of Tigray.

Amhara forces annexed western Tigray in the early stages of the war. They stand accused of “ethnic cleansing” by the U.S. State Department after they forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans from the area.

Under the recent ceasefire, aid deliveries to Tigray resumed after two years of restrictions. However, aid workers say Amhara forces have continued to block food distribution around Mai Tsebri, and residents have reported killings.

One Mai Tsebri resident, Teferi Muley, said he fled the area in November after he was threatened by Amhara troops, who accused him of helping the Tigray rebels. He said he returned in March to the nearby village of Haida, where he witnessed the shooting of several artisanal gold miners by Amhara troops.

Last week Ethiopia’s government said it planned to fold the security forces of the 11 federal regions into the national army or police. This prompted a wave of protest across Amhara, as well as gun battles between the federal military and regional Amhara units who refused to disarm.

Humanitarian officials believe the upheaval will likely lead to an increase in displacements from Mai Tsebri, which already stand at an average of 150 households every day, according to an assessment by another aid agency.

Ethiopians file lawsuit against Meta over hate speech in war

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Two Ethiopians have filed a lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, over hate speech they say was allowed and even promoted on the social media platform amid heated rhetoric over their country’s deadly Tigray conflict.

Former Amnesty International human rights researcher Fisseha Tekle is one petitioner in the case filed Wednesday and the other is the son of university professor Meareg Amare, who was killed weeks after posts on Facebook inciting violence against him.

The case was filed in neighboring Kenya, home to the platform’s content moderation operations related to Ethiopia. The lawsuit alleges that Meta hasn’t hired enough content moderators there, that it uses an algorithm that prioritizes hateful content and that it acts more slowly to crises in Africa than elsewhere in the world.

The lawsuit, also backed by Kenya-based legal organization the Katiba Institute, seeks the creation of a $1.6 billion fund for victims of hate speech.

A Facebook spokesman, Ben Walters, told The Associated Press they could not comment on the lawsuit because they haven’t received it. He shared a general statement: “We have strict rules which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content.” Facebook continues to develop its capabilities to catch violating content in Ethiopia’s most widely spoken languages, it said.

Ethiopia’s two-year Tigray conflict is thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. The warring sides signed a peace deal last month.

“This legal action is a significant step in holding Meta to account for its harmful business model,” said Flavia Mwangovya of Amnesty International in a statement pointing out that the Facebook posts targeting its former researcher and the professor were not isolated cases.

The AP and more than a dozen other media outlets last year explored how Facebook had failed to quickly and effectively moderate hate speech in cases around the world, including in Ethiopia. The reports were based on internal documents obtained by whistleblower Frances Haugen.

As Tigray Calms, Ethiopia Sees Growing Conflict In Oromia

FILE - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks at a final campaign rally at a stadium in the town of Jimma in the southwestern Oromia Region of Ethiopia, June 16 2021. Even as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends the U.S.-Africa summit this week to promote last month's peace agreement between his government and authorities from the country's Tigray region, the larger region of Oromia appears increasingly unstable (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, File)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — As one deadly conflict in Ethiopia begins to calm, another is growing, challenging a government that’s eager to persuade the international community to lift sanctions and revive what was once one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

Even as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends the U.S.-Africa summit this week to promote last month’s peace agreement between his government and authorities from the country’s Tigray region, the larger region of Oromia appears increasingly unstable.

Africa’s second most populous country, with 120 million people, is again wrestling with deadly tensions between ethnic groups and their armed allies. Both the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, the country’s largest, allege killings and blame the other. With telecommunications often cut and residents often fearing retaliation if they speak out, the death toll in the violence in Oromia is unknown.

Speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity out of fears for their safety, several residents of Oromia described deadly attacks in recent weeks.

One witness in the region’s Kiramu district said his father and cousin were among at least 34 people killed since Nov. 24. He blamed soldiers under the control of the Oromia regional government, saying he saw their uniforms.

“It all started with a confrontation between a single local militia and members of the Oromia special forces,” he said. “The special forces killed the militia who was a member of the Amhara community, and then a week-long killing followed.” He estimated that hundreds of people have since fled the area.

An ethnic Oromo resident of Kiramu, however, accused an Amhara armed group known as the Fano of attacking and killing civilians and said he had seen more than a dozen bodies and buried four of them on Nov. 29.

“This militia group is killing our people, burning villages and looting everything we own,” Dhugassa Feyissa told the AP. “They shoot at anyone they find … be it public servants, police officers or teachers.”

The Oromo and Amara have lived together for years, he said, but they had never seen fighting like this before.

The deputy administrator of the Gidda Ayanna district, which also has seen some of Oromia’s worst violence in recent weeks, also blamed the Amhara Fano fighters.

“Civilians in our area are being killed, displaced and looted. This group is heavily armed, so it is no match for farmers who are defenseless,” Getahun Tolera said, noting that his district now hosts some 31,000 people who fled nearby districts. “We are still going house-to-house and discovering bodies.”

Ethiopian federal government officials declined to comment on the killings in Oromia and have not yet openly spoken about them. The prime minister last week said only that some “enemies with extreme views” were trying to destabilize the country, without giving details.

Ethiopian security forces, Oromo insurgents and Amhara militia are all battling each other in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region, said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.

“Amid an intensifying government struggle against the rebels, all three have targeted civilians, particularly ethnic Amhara, which has led to an increase in violence by Amhara militia claiming to be defending their communities,” he said.

As Ethiopian federal security forces battle the Oromo Liberation Army, which the government has called a terrorist group, Oromo and Amhara residents and their armed allies also fight each other over grievances old and new.

Amhara settlers first moved en masse to Oromia in the 1980s during a famine in northern Ethiopia. They lived peacefully there until the past three years. The OLA split from an Oromo political organization and reportedly began targeting Amhara, at times as revenge for its losses to government forces. Amhara militia reportedly began targeting Oromos, and regional security forces became involved.

Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, followed by the Amhara, who have dominated the country’s politics for generations. Many Oromos were jubilant when Abiy, who identifies as Oromo, became prime minister in 2018. But that excitement has changed to frustration with the growing violence.

Rallies protesting the killings have been held in some communities in recent days. Last week, the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said “hundreds” of people had been killed in a “gruesome manner” in the past four months across 10 zones in the Oromia region, and it confirmed the presence of government forces, Amhara militia and the OLA in areas where repeated killings occur.

“The deliberate attacks against civilians in these areas are made based on ethnicity and political views … with the assertion that one supports one group over the other,” the commission said, urging the federal government to take urgent action.

Opposition parties also are speaking up. The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party, All Ethiopia Unity Party and Enat Party called for more security for the affected communities, and a senior Ethiopian official from the opposition National Movement of Amhara asked the federal government to intervene.

“The totality of us have become a country that shows no strong aversion to a continued bloodshed of innocents, wherever it may happen,” Belete Molla said in a Facebook post earlier this month.

Another prominent political figure, Oromo opposition politician Jawar Mohammed, earlier this month asserted that at least 350 people had been killed and over 400,000 displaced “just in the last 48 hours” in the Kiramu, Horo Guduru, Kuyu and Wara Jarso areas of Oromia.

“The government needs to quit pretending as if nothing is happening,” Jawar said in a Facebook post. “The conflict is fast becoming a communal war involving civilians. If not contained soon, it will likely spread to other parts of the two regional states and beyond.”

Eritrean Forces Still Killing Tigray Civilians, Report Says

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Eritrean troops have continued killing dozens of civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and committing other abuses weeks after the two main warring parties signed a peace deal, according to an official document seen by The Associated Press.

The forces from neighboring Eritrea, which has fought alongside Ethiopia’s military in the two-year conflict, killed 111 civilians and injured another 103 in the eastern zone of Tigray, according to information compiled between Nov. 17 and 25 by the Tigray Emergency Center. Regional government offices, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations participate in the ECC.

The report also says there were 39 “kidnapping/disappearances” of civilians by Eritrean forces and “widespread looting,” including the destruction of 241 houses. One of the kidnapped civilians was later found dead.

The abuses threaten to harm the deal struck in South Africa between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray leaders on Nov. 2. Tigray’s forces are supposed to disarm within 30 days of the agreement, but they now say they will hand over their heavy weapons only after Eritrea’s military leaves the region. Eritrea, however, is not a party to the peace talks.

Last week the AP reported that Eritrean forces and troops from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region were still looting and carrying out mass detentions in the Tigray region of more than 5 million people.

Eritrean troops entered the conflict alongside Ethiopia’s government when fighting broke out in November 2020. They have been accused of widespread human rights abuses, including gang rapes.

In a rare public statement on the issue last week, the African Union mediator who brokered the peace deal, Olusegun Obasanjo, called on “foreign troops” to leave Tigray.

Aid has started to reach Tigray since the deal was signed, but some aid workers have said convoys of humanitarian supplies have been blocked by checkpoints manned by Eritrean soldiers. Currently, aid workers can only access 54 of 104 camps for displaced people in Tigray, according to the ECC report.

Yet some observers remain hopeful that the deal will be implemented. On Thursday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the conflict had killed more people than the war in Ukraine and described the deal as an “an opportunity that Ethiopia cannot miss, that Africa cannot miss, and that the world cannot miss.”

A joint committee comprising representatives from the federal government, Tigray leaders and the AU and tasked with drawing up plans for disarmament held its first meeting in the Tigray town of Shire on Wednesday. The government’s communication service said its work has been “delayed due to technical factors.”

Ethiopia, Tigray Military Leaders Agree On Peace Roadmap

Chief of Staff of Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshall Birhanu Jula, left, and Head of the Tigray Forces Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede, right, exchange signed copies of an agreement, at Ethiopian peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022. Top military commanders from Ethiopia and its embattled Tigray region agreed Saturday to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the region and form a joint disarmament committee following last week's truce. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Top military commanders from Ethiopia and its embattled Tigray region have agreed to allow unhindered humanitarian access to the region and form a joint disarmament committee following last week’s truce.

The commanders, who since Monday have been meeting in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, signed an agreement Saturday that they said calls for disengagement from all forms of military activities.

Both parties have agreed to protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region of more than 5 million people, according to a copy of the agreement seen by The Associated Press.

The agreement states that disarmament will be “done concurrently with the withdrawal of foreign and non-(Ethiopian military) forces” from Tigray.

The lead negotiator for Ethiopia, Redwan Hussein, told the AP that Saturday’s signing event created a conductive environment for ongoing peace efforts, noting that the next meeting of military leaders will “most likely” be held in Tigray in mid-December before a final meeting in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, in January.

In a separate statement late Saturday, Ethiopia’s federal authorities said that “efforts are being made to deliver humanitarian assistance to most of the Tigray region which is under (Ethiopian military) command.”

That statement noted that representatives of Ethiopian and Tigrayan militaries meeting in Kenya discussed “detailed plans for disarmament” of Tigray forces, including an agreement on the entry of Ethiopian forces into the Tigrayan capital of Mekele.

The African Union-led talks in Nairobi followed the cessation of hostilities agreement signed by Ethiopia and Tigray leaders in South Africa last week.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is helping to facilitate the talks, said Saturday that “humanitarian aid should have resumed like yesterday.” Former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also involved in the talks, thanked the commanders for their commitment to peace.

The Tigray conflict began in November 2020, less than a year after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with Eritrea, which borders the Tigray region and whose fighters have been fighting alongside Ethiopian federal troops in Tigray.

Eritrea is not explicitly mentioned in the peace papers, and a diplomat who attended the talks in Nairobi said the issue of Eritrea was a sticking point this week.

The brutal fighting in Tigray, which spilled into Amhara and Afar regions as Tigrayan forces tried to break the military blockade of their region, reignited in August after months of lull that allowed thousands of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Tigray.

The war in Africa’s second-most populous country, which marked two years on Nov. 4, has seen abuses documented on both sides, with millions of people displaced and many near famine.

Phone and internet connections to Tigray are still down, and foreign journalists and human rights researchers remain barred, complicating efforts to verify reports of ongoing violence in the region.

New Round Of Peace Talks Between Ethiopia, Tigray Envoys

From left to right, Chief of Staff of Ethiopian Armed Forces Field Marshall Birhanu Jula, former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, African Union envoy and former Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo, and Head of the Tigray Forces Lieutenant General Tadesse Werede, attend continuing peace talks between Ethiopia's government and Tigray regional representatives, in Nairobi, Kenya Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. A new round of talks began Monday to work out military and other details of last week's signing of a "permanent" cessation of hostilities in a two-year conflict thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. (AP Photo/Khalil Senosi)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — A new round of talks began Monday between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray regional representatives to work out military and other details of last week’s signing of a “permanent” cessation of hostilities in a two-year conflict thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The meetings in Kenya involve the military commanders of both sides along with the leading political negotiators. Issues to be discussed include how to monitor the deal, disarming Tigray forces and the resumption of humanitarian aid access and basic services to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which has been cut off for months.

“Maybe by the end of this week or the middle of next week” humanitarian aid will be allowed to go in, the Ethiopian government’s lead negotiator, Redwan Hussein, told journalists. The Tigray lead negotiator, Getachew Reda, said the delivery of aid would increase confidence in the talks.

An official familiar with the talks hosted by the Kenyan government says they are expected to continue through Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Already, a communications channel has been established between the two sides to address any incidents “as both recognize the challenge of fully communicating with all their units to stop fighting,” the official said.

Those facilitating and attending the talks include African Union envoy and former Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo, former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta and Nigerian, South African and Kenyan military officers. The United States and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development are observers.

Kenyatta said they are “very hopeful next time we’ll be in (the Tigray regional capital) for our meeting” and that both sides will “ultimately celebrate together in Addis Ababa,” Ethiopia’s capital.

Over the weekend, the Ethiopian government’s lead negotiator told diplomats that “we’ve sustained colossal damage” and that the finance minister has estimated the country will require nearly $20 billion to rebuild. “We’ll quickly fix both telecoms and electricity soon” to the Tigray region, he said.

On humanitarian aid to a region where health workers and the United Nations and partners have reported even basic medical supplies running out, Redwan said that “the only hiccup we have is ... it is still risky to allow flights until commanders meet to assess the situation.”

If the military commanders agree on a timeline, the Ethiopian government believes that once the government controls the airspace and airports in Tigray fully, then “the entire Tigray region would be accessible for aid” by road and air, he said.

Neighboring Eritrea, whose forces have fought alongside Ethiopian ones, is not a party to the peace talks, and last week’s agreement doesn’t mention the country directly. Redwan in his briefing noted that Ethiopia’s borders and airspace had been violated during the conflict, “so we’re busy fighting each other, we’re busy undermining each other. That paved the way for a third party to undermine us further.”

He didn’t mention Eritrea but added that “we may also have a third party which may not be interested in this peace process.”

In his first public comment outside the talks, Tigray lead negotiator Getachew responded to questions from some Tigrayans about the agreement and his side’s silence. “We are fighting not because we are a trigger-happy nation but because our survival as a people is at stake,” he tweeted. “If a peace agreement can ensure our survival, why not give it a try?′

Ethiopia Asserts Government Got ’100%′ In Tigray Peace Deal

Lead negotiator for Ethiopia’s government, Redwan Hussein, left, shakes hands with lead Tigray negotiator Getachew Reda, as Kenya's former president, Uhuru Kenyatta looks on, after the peace talks in Pretoria, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. Ethiopia’s warring sides have formally agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities, an African Union special envoy said Wednesday, after a 2-year conflict whose victims could be counted in the hundreds of thousands. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Officials close to peace talks aimed at ending Ethiopia’s deadly two-year war confirmed the full text of the signed accord on Thursday, but a key question remains: What led Tigray regional leaders to agree to terms that include rapid disarmament and full federal government control?

A day after the warring sides signed a “permanent cessation of hostilities” in a war that is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, none of the negotiators were talking about how they arrived at it.

The complete agreement has not been made public, but the officials confirmed that a copy obtained by The Associated Press was the final document. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.

At Wednesday’s signing, the lead negotiator for Tigray described it as containing “painful concessions.”

One of the pact’s priorities is to swiftly disarm Tigray forces of heavy weapons, and take away their “light weapons” within 30 days. Senior commanders on both sides are to meet within five days.

Ethiopian security forces will take full control of “all federal facilities, installations, and major infrastructure ... within the Tigray region,” and an interim regional administration will be established after dialogue between the parties, the accord says. The terrorist designation for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front party will be lifted.

If implemented, the agreement should mark an end to the devastating conflict in Africa’s second-most populous country. Millions of people have been displaced and many left near famine under a blockade of the Tigray region of more than 5 million people. Abuses have been documented on all sides.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed asserted that his government received everything it asked for in the peace talks.

“During the negotiation in South Africa, Ethiopia’s peace proposal has been accepted 100%,” and the government is ready to “open our hearts” for peace to prevail, Abiy said in a speech. He added that the issue of contested areas, seen as one of the most difficult, will be resolved only through the law of the land and negotiations.

Neither Ethiopian government nor Tigray negotiators responded to questions.

As part of the full agreement, both sides agreed not to make any unilateral statement that would undermine it. The deal also calls for the immediate “cessation of all forms of hostile propaganda, rhetoric and hate speech.” The conflict has been marked by language that U.S. special envoy Mike Hammer, who helped with the peace talks, has described as having “a high level of toxicity.”

“The human cost of this conflict has been devastating. I urge all Ethiopians to seize this opportunity for peace,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Thursday, one of many messages from observers expressing cautious hope.

Enormous challenges lie ahead. The opaque and repressive government of neighboring Eritrea, whose forces have fought alongside Ethiopian ones, has not commented, and it was not clear whether Eritrean forces had begun to withdraw. The agreement says Ethiopian forces will be deployed along the borders and “ensure that there will be no provocation or incursion from either side of the border.”

Mustafa Yusuf Ali, an analyst with the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies, said trust-building will be crucial. The agreement “needs to be coordinated, it needs to be systematic, and above all it needs to be sequenced so that the Tigrayans are not left to their devices after handing in all their weapons then suddenly they are attacked by the center,” he said.

The agreement sets deadlines for disarmament but little else, although it says Ethiopia’s government will “expedite the provision of humanitarian aid” and “expedite and coordinate the restoration of essential services in the Tigray region within agreed time frames.”

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they had not yet resumed the delivery of humanitarian aid to Tigray, whose communication, transportation and banking links have been largely severed since fighting began. Some basic medicines have run out.

“It’s not surprising that it may take a little bit of time to get the word out to the competent authorities in the field. We are in touch with them and trying to get that unimpeded access as soon as possible,” the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.

A humanitarian worker in Tigray’s second-largest town, Shire, said there had been no sounds of gunfire over the past few days but people and vehicles were still blocked from moving freely. It was also quiet in the town of Axum, another humanitarian worker said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Residents of the Tigray regional capital, Mekele, nervously waited for next steps.

Asked about the peace agreement, resident Gidey Tsadik replied, “It’s good. Everyone is happy. However, it’s not known when exactly we will have that peace.”

Tedros Hiwot said residents hadn’t heard when basic services will resume. “We need it to happen quickly,” he said.

Tigrayans outside the region said they still could not reach their families by phone. “I hope that this will be an opportunity to reconnect with my family,” said Andom Gebreyesus, who lives in Kenya. “I miss them and I don’t know if they are alive.”

At a memorial service in the capital, Addis Ababa, for soldiers killed in the conflict, Defense Minister Abraham Belay spoke of “the very complex and tough reconstruction work that lies ahead of us.”

Associated Press writers Desmond Tiro in Nairobi, Kenya, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

UN Genocide Official: Hate Speech Is fueling Ethiopia’s War

Tigray Defense Force fighters survey the burning wreckage of an Ethiopian Air Force plane downed a few hours earlier, June 23, 2021

BY RODNEY MUHUMUZA

KAMPALA, UGANDA (AP) — A U.N. official is urging tech companies to do everything possible to stop the onslaught of hate speech fueling the war in Ethiopia’s north, where a violent war pits federal troops and their allies against Tigray’s rebellious leaders.

Inflammatory language by political leaders and armed groups in the Tigray conflict “continues unabated,” Alice Wairimu Nderitu, U.N. special adviser on the prevention of genocide, said in a statement Wednesday.

“There is discourse often propagated through social media, which dehumanizes groups by likening them to a ‘virus’ that should be eradicated, to a ‘cancer’ that should be treated because ”if a single cell is left untreated, that single cell will expand and affect the whole body” and calling for the “killing of every single youth from Tigray” which is particularly dangerous, the statement said.

Fighting resumed between Tigray forces and federal troops in August, bringing an end to a cease-fire since March that had allowed much-needed aid to enter the region. Eritrean troops are fighting on the side of Ethiopia’s federal military.

Fighting has intensified in recent weeks as federal troops try to take control of towns in Tigray. Earlier this week they took control of three towns, including one hosting a large number of internally displaced people in the Shire area.

Aid distributions are being hampered by a lack of fuel and a communications blackout in Tigray. The AP reported Saturday that a U.N. team found there were “10 starvation-related deaths” at seven camps for internally displaced people in northwestern Tigray, according to an internal document.

The conflict, which began nearly two years ago, has spread from Tigray into the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara as Tigray’s leaders try to break the blockade of their region.

The head of the continent-wide African Union and the U.N. secretary-general are urging the warring parties to stop fighting and meet for peace talks that were meant to start earlier this month in South Africa. The talks were delayed because of logistical issues.

“The conflict has reached new worrying levels of violence,” with widespread rape and sexual violence, Nderitu said in the statement that cited “horrifying levels of hate speech and incitement to violence.”

“The atrocious abuses taking place are spurred by the deluge of ethnically motivated hate speech that is propagated online,” the statement said, urging tech companies and their social networks to use “all tools available to stop the spread of hate speech that could constitute incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence on their platforms.”

Millions of people in Tigray, Amhara and Afar have been uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the conflict that started in November 2020.

Witnesses: Airstrike In Ethiopia’s Tigray Kills Civilians

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — An airstrike in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region killed at least five civilians during a major religious holiday earlier this week as the revived war continues, according to humanitarian workers and an internal document seen by The Associated Press.

The airstrike hit the town of Adi Daero in northwestern Tigray on Tuesday morning, also injuring 16 civilians and destroying several homes, the document by a non-governmental organization said.

Humanitarian workers in the Tigray capital, Mekele, and the region’s second-largest city, Shire, 25 kilometers from Adi Daero, confirmed the deadly attack. One of the Shire workers said fighter jets attacked both Adi Daero and Shire almost simultaneously. No one in Shire was injured, while some of the injured from Adi Daero were brought to Shire, the worker said.

All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

On Friday, an Ethiopian government-run Twitter account accused the rival Tigray forces of “hiding its arms” in residential areas and said Ethiopia’s air force recently targeted the forces’ “military equipment and arsenal” in Adi Daero.

In a statement Thursday, Tigray forces accused the air force of neighboring Eritrea of striking Adi Daero and killing “a number of civilians.” Eritrean forces are fighting alongside Ethiopia’s military in Tigray.

The AP was unable to verify who was responsible for the strike. Satellite imagery shared this week by Maxar Technologies showed a military buildup inside Eritrea near the border with the Tigray region.

Several airstrikes have been reported in Tigray since fighting resumed in August after a months-long lull in the fighting. Humanitarian aid to the long-blockaded region of more than 5 million people has again been cut off.

“We’re not moving any trucks in presently” and no staff has been able to enter or leave Tigray since Aug. 24, the World Food Program’s regional director for East Africa, Michael Dunford, told a think tank on Thursday, adding that there is a “real need for the offensive to end, for the fighting to stop.”

He said 89% of people in Tigray have limited food capacity and more than 40% are “acutely food insecure.”

Dunford said diplomats are better placed to advocate for a humanitarian truce.

UN: ‘Extreme Lack Of Food’ For Many In Ethiopia’s Tigray

FILE - An Ethiopian woman scoops up portions of yellow split peas to be allocated to waiting families after it was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on May 8, 2021. Nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of Ethiopia's blockaded Tigray region over a four-month period between July and October 2021, according to a new report published in Jan. 2022 by the region's health bureau. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — More than a third of the people in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region “are suffering an extreme lack of food,” the United Nations World Food Program said in a new assessment of a region under a months-long government blockade.

“Families are exhausting all means to feed themselves, with three-quarters of the population using extreme coping strategies to survive,” the WFP said in its report released Friday, noting increases in begging and relying on just one meal a day. It called for all parties in Ethiopia’s war to agree to a humanitarian cease-fire and “formally agreed transport corridors” for aid after 15 months of war.

The U.N. said no aid convoy has entered the Tigray region of some 6 million people since mid-December. Separately, the U.N. humanitarian agency said less than 10% of the needed supplies, including medicines and fuel, have entered Tigray since mid-July. All international NGOs operating in Tigray have depleted their fuel, “with their staff delivering the little remaining humanitarian supplies and services on foot, where possible,” the agency said in its Friday update.

Ethiopia’s government has been wary of allowing aid to fall into the hands of the Tigray forces who once dominated the national government and have been battling the current government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since November 2020. The government in part has blamed problems with aid delivery on insecurity it says is caused by Tigray forces, including new fighting in the neighboring Afar region near the only approved road corridor for aid.

Aid workers, however, also blame bureaucratic obstacles including intrusive personal searches and confiscation of items including personal medications before visits to Tigray. The new WFP report, based on face-to-face interviews with more than 980 households across accessible parts of Tigray, cited “extraordinary operation challenges.”

Meanwhile, hunger is growing. When asked whether there is famine in Tigray, WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri told reporters in Geneva that it had not been declared. But “we have people who are facing famine-like conditions. ... Famine and famine-like conditions? Different animals, but the same beast.”

The war has shifted in recent weeks, with the Tigray forces retreating into their region after attempting to advance on the capital, Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia’s military saying it would not pursue them further. That opened the way for fresh mediation efforts by the United States and the African Union, with humanitarian access a key goal.

Aid has begun reaching people in the Amhara and Afar regions after Tigray forces’ incursions there displaced hundreds of thousands. But the new WFP report said that some 9 million people, the most yet in the war, need food assistance across the three affected regions.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry this week said it was working with aid partners to facilitate daily cargo flights to Tigray “to transport much-needed medicines and supplies.” It is not clear when the daily flights will begin, though the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday announced that it had made its first delivery of medical supplies to Tigray since September, calling it “a huge relief.” A second flight followed on Thursday.

The U.N. has said time is running out. “Aid organizations have warned that operations could cease completely by the end of February in Tigray,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday.

Tigray’s health bureau this week reported that nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of the region over a four-month period last year, including more than 350 young children. It cited more than 5,000 blockade-related deaths in all from hunger and disease in the largest official death toll yet associated with the country’s war.

Ethiopia’s government has sought to restrict reporting on the war and detained some journalists under the state of emergency, including a video freelancer accredited to the AP, Amir Aman Kiyaro. The country’s Council of Ministers this week proposed ending the state of emergency now, citing the changing security situation. That needs lawmakers’ approval.

___

Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Report: 5,000-Plus Deaths Under Ethiopia’s Tigray Blockade

FILE - An Ethiopian woman scoops up portions of yellow split peas to be allocated to waiting families after it was distributed by the Relief Society of Tigray in the town of Agula, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, on May 8, 2021. Nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of Ethiopia's blockaded Tigray region over a four-month period between July and October 2021, according to a new report published in Jan. 2022 by the region's health bureau. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

BY CARA ANNA

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — Nearly 1,500 people died of malnutrition in just part of Ethiopia’s blockaded Tigray region over a four-month period last year, including more than 350 young children, a new report by the region’s health bureau says. It cites more than 5,000 blockade-related deaths in all from hunger and disease in the largest official death toll yet associated with the country’s war.

“Deaths are alarmingly increasing,” including from easily preventable diseases like rabies as medicines run out or expire, the head of Tigray’s health bureau, Hagos Godefay, told The Associated Press late last year as the findings were being compiled. “This is one of the worst times of my life, I can tell you.”

His report on the findings, published Wednesday by the independent Ethiopia Insight, says 5,421 deaths were confirmed in Tigray between July and October in an assessment by his bureau and some international aid groups. It was the first such assessment since the war between Tigray and Ethiopian forces began in November 2020, he said.

The deaths were overwhelmingly from malnutrition, infectious disease and noncommunicable diseases as the health bureau and partners sought to gauge the effects on Tigray’s population of its health system being largely destroyed by combatants.

The deaths do not reflect people killed in combat, Hagos told the AP on Thursday in a call from the Tigray capital, Mekele, though the report reflects a small percentage of deaths from airstrikes.

The mortality assessment covered just roughly 40% of Tigray, he said, since occupation of some areas by combatants and the lack of fuel caused by the blockade has limited data-gathering and aid delivery.

“Since the magnitude of the destruction and health crisis in the inaccessible areas is undoubtedly high, the survey is bound to underreport the real extent of the crisis,” Hagos wrote.

Severe acute malnutrition in children under 5, at less than 2% in Tigray before the war, was now above 7%, he said. The assessment found at least 369 children under 5 had died of malnutrition, part of 1,479 people in all.

The AP last year confirmed the first starvation deaths under the blockade along with the government’s ban on humanitarian workers bringing medicines. even personal ones, into Tigray,

Hagos told the AP that without medical supplies or vaccines, easily preventable disease like measles were emerging in Tigray and COVID-19 has begun to spread. HIV patients “are coming all the time to my office to ask if drugs are coming or not. But my hands are tied,” he said. Earlier this month, the United Nations said Ethiopia’s government had released over 850,000 measles vaccines to Tigray.

Ethiopia’s government cut off almost all access to food aid, medical supplies, cash and fuel in June last year when the Tigray forces regained control of the region. Since then, the United Nations has repeatedly warned that less than 15% of the needed supplies have been entering Tigray under what it called a de facto humanitarian blockade. Ethiopia’s government has expressed concern about aid falling into the hands of fighters.

But under a new wave of pressure this month after Tigray forces retreated back into their region amid a military offensive, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry in a statement on Sunday said it was working with aid partners to facilitate daily cargo flights to Tigray “to transport much-needed medicines and supplies.” The government in part has blamed issues with aid delivery on insecurity it says is caused by Tigray forces.

It is not clear when the daily flights will begin, though the International Committee of the Red Cross on Wednesday announced that it had made its first delivery of medical supplies to Tigray since September, calling it “a huge relief.”

An ICRC spokeswoman told the AP that the cargo of surgical supplies and essential drugs would help to treat at least 200 injured people, and that the group intends to send more supplies in the coming days and weeks.

Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to questions on Thursday about the daily flights and when the government’s blockade would be lifted completely to allow full access to the region.

Ethiopia’s health minister, Lia Tadesse, in a message to the AP said the increase in flights is due to the challenge of delivering by land because of the conflict, not a blockade.

“Additionally, critically needed medicines and supplies including vaccines and emergency drugs that partners do not have at hand but (the ministry) has are on process to be sent through partners,” she said.

The U.N. has indicated that time is running out. “Aid organizations have warned that operations could cease completely by the end of February in Tigray,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Thursday.

Ethiopia’s government has sought to restrict reporting on the war and detained some journalists under the state of emergency, including a video freelancer accredited to the AP, Amir Aman Kiyaro.

Tigray Leader Says Fighters To Leave Nearby Ethiopian Areas

ASSOCIATED PRESS 

Debretsion Gebremichael

NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) —The leader of Tigray forces in Ethiopia says its fighters outside of the region have been ordered to withdraw and return to the embattled federal state.

Debretsion Gebremichael, in a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, proposed an immediate cease-fire to be followed by negotiations.

“I have ordered those units of the Tigray Army that are outside the borders of Tigray to withdraw to the borders of Tigray within immediate effect,” Debretsion said in the letter.

Other proposals in the letter include the establishment of a no-fly zone for over Tigray to prevent hostile flights and the imposition of an international arms embargo on Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The order for the forces to return to Tigray came as the Ethiopian federal army and its allies have made strong advances in recent weeks. Major towns and cities in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions have been recaptured by the Ethiopian forces, forcing the Tigray fighters to retreat further into their region.

Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray region, confirmed on Monday the withdrawal was complete. “By doing so, we believe we have taken away whatever excuse the international community (may have used) to explain its feet-dragging when it comes to putting pressure on Aiby Ahmed,” he wrote on Twitter, referring to the Ethiopian prime minister.

The Ethiopian government has not yet commented on the latest move by Tigrayan forces.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a war that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian forces and fighters from the country’s Tigray region, who dominated the national government before Abiy became prime minister in 2018.

Some of Tigray’s 6 million people have begun starving to death under a months-long government blockade. Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been detained or forcibly expelled in an atmosphere stoked by virulent speeches against Tigrayans by some senior Ethiopian officials. Alarmed human rights groups have warned some of the anti-Tigrayan rhetoric is hate speech.

Last month, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency as Tigray fighters moved closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, and carried out a number of abuses against ethnic Amhara, according to accounts by local residents. The Tigray forces say they are fighting to lift the blockade on their people.

“The Tigray forces have suffered a number of challenges and setbacks in their attempt to control the Djibouti road and then move to Addis Ababa,” said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “It is very important at this point that all actors take the opportunity to stop the fighting and try to reestablish some trust.”

Davison said the Ethiopian government’s military strength may have been strengthened by aerial drones newly purchased for the federal military from China and Turkey with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates. “Tigray forces appear to be in a weakened position after giving up all the areas they controlled,” he said.

‘I Cannot Escape’: New Abuses Alleged In Ethiopia’s Tigray

BY CARA ANNA

Refugees who fled the fighting in Tigray stand in line for supplies at the Um Rakuba camp near the Sudan border. Baz Ratner/Reuters



NAIROBI, KENYA (AP) — New witness accounts allege that thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been forcibly expelled, detained or killed in one of the most inaccessible areas of Ethiopia’s yearlong war in the latest wave of abuses carried out with machetes, guns and knives.

Following a report by The Associated Press early last month citing people who fled, Thursday’s joint statement by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International is based on interviews with more than 30 witnesses and relatives. It comes ahead of a U.N. Human Rights Council session Friday on Ethiopia, whose government objects to what it considers meddling by the West over the war that has killed tens of thousands of people.

“They said they will not be responsible for any beating and killing that would happen to us if we fail to go,” one witness told the AP late last month, saying even people who are part Tigrayan like him are targeted. Like others, he spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“I cannot escape anywhere,” he said, noting the many checkpoints surrounding the western Tigray region. “There is no way out of this trap.”

Ethnic Tigrayans have been targeted throughout the conflict as Ethiopian and allied forces battle the Tigray fighters who long dominated the national government before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office three years ago. Some of the worst abuses have been reported in the western Tigray region, which has been occupied by authorities and fighters from the neighboring Amhara region and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea.

The latest alleged abuses appear to be linked to the Tigray forces’ recent momentum, which Ethiopia’s government asserts has been blunted after the prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former soldier, went to the battlefront himself. Witnesses told the AP that authorities in western Tigray warned in public meetings against supporting the Tigray fighters, who themselves have been accused of a growing number of abuses in the war.

The new joint statement by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International says Amhara security forces are responsible for the latest wave of expulsions, detentions and killings, and it warns that Tigrayans in detention are “at grave risk.” It says security forces systematically rounded up Tigrayans in the communities of Humera, Adebay and Rawyan, separating families and expelling women and children.

“They separated the old from the young, took their money and other possessions. ... Older people, parents were loaded on big trucks (going) east. They let them go with nothing, while the young remained behind,” one witness in Rawyan told the human rights groups. In Humera, witnesses described seeing as many as 20 trucks carrying people away. It’s not often clear where they are taken.

“They said they will send the pure Tigrayans first and then send those are half Tigrayans,” one western Tigray resident told the AP.

“Tigrayans disappear all the time these days,” a Humera resident told the AP. “There is no way of finding out who took them, or where they are being kept or whether they are alive or not.” He asserted that different detention centers are run by Ethiopian, Eritrean and Amhara forces.

A spokesman for the Amhara region, Gizachew Muluneh, and Abiy spokeswoman Billene Seyoum did not immediately comment.

The United Nations has estimated that 20,000 people were recently evicted from western Tigray, most of them women, children and the elderly. The U.N. has said more than 1 million have been displaced from there since the war began in November 2020.

But not all can leave. Witnesses have alleged that hundreds, if not thousands, of Tigrayans are held in makeshift, overcrowded detention centers in western Tigray, part of thousands being held elsewhere across Ethiopia amid suspicions fueled by hate speech by some senior government officials. The government has said it is targeting only the Tigray forces.

One detainee in Humera told the human rights groups he escaped last month while loading the bodies of fellow detainees onto a tractor, and asserted that he knew of at least 30 people who died in detention.

“They couldn’t handle the torture, that’s why they were dying,” he said. Witnesses described beatings with rifle butts and electric wires along with the denial of food and medicine.

Witnesses told the AP, and the human rights groups, that some people trying to flee the roundups in Adebay were attacked and killed, with some Amhara fighters searching house-to-house with axes. “The whole town smelled” with dead bodies, one man said.

The human rights groups are calling on Ethiopian authorities to end the attacks on civilians and immediately grant access to western Tigray for aid groups. They also call on the U.N. Human Rights Council to establish an independent mechanism to investigate the war’s abuses, including by Tigray forces, and urge the U.N. Security Council to put Ethiopia on its formal agenda.

“The global paralysis on Ethiopia’s armed conflict has emboldened human rights abusers to act with impunity and left communities at risk of feeling abandoned,” Human Rights Watch’s Laetitia Bader said.

Ethiopia’s government has sought to restrict reporting on the war, detaining some journalists including a video freelancer accredited to the AP and barring others from entering the country.

Follow AP stories about the war in Ethiopia at https://apnews.com/hub/Ethiopia