Ethiopia civil war: G7 ‘strongly concerned’ about international law violations and human rights abuses in Tigray

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The G7 nations have said they are “strongly concerned” about recent reports of human rights abuses and violations of international law in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

Following a brutal civil war, rife with reports of massacres and weaponised sexual violence that some allege amount to genocide, the group of leading economic powers reminded Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, that he is obliged to hold to account those found to have committed human rights abuses.

The group’s foreign ministers said it was essential that a pending joint investigation into the war’s crimes by the United Nations and Ethiopian commissioner for human rights would be truly “independent, transparent and impartial”.

“We condemn the killing of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, indiscriminate shelling and the forced displacement of residents of Tigray and Eritrean refugees,” they said in a statement. “All parties must exercise utmost restraint, ensure the protection of civilians and respect human rights and international law.”

The civil war between central forces and the once-powerful Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) – which ruled the nation for 30 years – erupted in November, after years of intensifying political tensions in the wake of Mr Abiy’s elevation to power in 2018 and his Nobel Peace Prize-winning peace deal with Eritrea, which isolated the TPLF.

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Mr Abiy declared victory in late November, after his forces seized the regional capital, Mekelle, with little resistance. But four months later, the devastated region is still militarised and its residents continue to face fresh traumas, with one leaked US government report accusing national and Eritrean forces of “deliberately and efficiently rendering western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organised use of force and intimidation”.

Some 2 million people were reported by the BBC in February to have been displaced in the war, which opposition parties estimated had so far killed 52,000 people, including women, children and religious leaders – although patchy communications have obscured much of the conflict’s human cost.

With food already scarce in some parts before the fighting, warnings of the need for international help to stave off “humanitarian disaster” quickly emerged.

The G7 said on Friday that it was “concerned about worsening food insecurity, with emergency conditions prevailing across extensive areas of central and eastern Tigray”, urging all parties involved to “provide immediate, unhindered humanitarian access”.

As TPLF insurgents continue to battle central forces, Reuters reports that, in recent weeks, tens of thousands of people have also been displaced as a result of reignited land disputes with newly emboldened troops and militiamen from neighbouring Amhara, who say Tigrayans stole vast swathes of their land during the TPLF’s three decades in power.

It comes as a series of investigations this week have served to shine more light on the atrocities committed in Tigray, and already appear to be increasing international pressure on Mr Abiy, who told his country’s parliament on 30 November, after claiming victory, that “not a single civilian was killed”.

Compiling one of the most complete records of the mass killings of civilians in the region, a team from the University of Ghent identified 1,942 victims and more than 150 massacres (defined as incidents in which five or more unarmed civilians died) – 20 of which they believe occurred in the last month.

Scraping information from a network of informants, witnesses and mourning family members, they discovered that just three per cent of the civilian casualties they identified – ranging from infants to nonagenarians – had been killed by airstrikes or artillery, with most having died in summary executions or organised massacres, of which both sides have been accused.

Aside from the nearly 2,000 “fully documented civilian casualties”, their investigation of social media and local press and NGO reports counted more than 7,000 reported civilian deaths.

In instances where blame was apportioned for the deaths of those they identified, Eritrean forces shouldered 43 per cent of the blame and Ethiopian soldiers 18 per cent – with an additional 18 per cent mentioning “either Ethiopian or Eritrean soldiers, they jointly carried out the killings”.

Having long denied the involvement of Eritrean troops, who are embroiled in US allegations of ethnic cleansing, Mr Abiy recently announced their withdrawal from the region. In its statement on Friday, the G7 insisted this must be “swift, unconditional and verifiable”.

Meanwhile, another joint investigation by the BBC, Bellingcat and Newsy put an alleged massacre in January near the town of Mahbere Dego into sharper focus, claiming to reveal the precise location of an atrocity in which at least 15 men were reportedly executed by people wearing Ethiopian military uniforms.

One resident said 73 men were taken by soldiers and were still missing, including three of his relatives.

The BBC reported that one voice in a clip of the killings could be heard saying in Ethiopia’s main language of Amharic: “I wish we could pour gas over them and burn them”, to which another responds: “It would have been great if there was gas to burn these people ... Burn their bodies like the Indians do.”

Another clip reportedly appears to suggest the perpetrators believe their victims to belong to the TPLF, with one armed man using a slang term for the movement as he says: “This is the end of woyane ... We don’t show mercy.”

Despite the Ghent team’s work suggesting that more than 90 per cent of civilian deaths were men, reports of rape being systematically used as a tool of genocide and a weapon with which to oppress women prompted the UN to call last week for an immediate end to “indiscriminate and targeted attacks against civilians, including rape and other horrific forms of sexual violence”.

In a report carrying allegations of gang-rape and murder at the hands of soldiers, The Telegraph said hundreds of women were seeking emergency contraception and HIV prevention drugs after suffering sexual violence in Tigray, where according to the UN just 13 per cent of medical facilities remain operational. Thousands more are reportedly thought to be affected but remain unknown to medics.

A doctor at the Sudanese refugee town of Hamdayet told CNN: “The women that have been raped say that the things that they say to them when they were raping them is that they need to change their identity – to either Amharise them or at least leave their Tigrinya status ... and that they’ve come there to cleanse them ... to cleanse the blood line.”

“Practically, this has been a genocide,” Dr Tedros Tefera added.

While Eritrea’s information minister denied outright their troops’ involvement in abuses – the claims of which he said were “fabricated” – Mr Abiy acknowledged the allegations earlier this week, saying: “Any member of the national defence who committed rape and looting against our Tigrayan sisters will be held accountable.”

In their statement, the G7 leaders reiterated their calls for an end to violence “and the establishment of a clear inclusive political process that is acceptable to all Ethiopians, including those in Tigray and which leads to credible elections and a wider national reconciliation process”.