By RODNEY MUHUMUZA, Associated Press
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Allies of Ethiopia’s federal military are looting property and carrying out mass detentions in Tigray, in keeping with eyewitnesses and aid staff.
The accounts raise fresh concern about alleged atrocities greater than three weeks after the warring parties signed a truce that diplomats and others hoped would bring an end to suffering within the embattled region that’s home to greater than 5 million people.
Tigray continues to be largely cut off from the remainder of Ethiopia, although aid deliveries into the region resumed after the Nov. 2 cease-fire deal signed in South Africa. There’s limited or no access into the region for human rights researchers, making it difficult for journalists and others to acquire information from Tigray as Ethiopian forces proceed to say control of the region.
Eritrean troops and forces from the neighboring Ethiopian region of Amhara — who’ve been fighting on the side of Ethiopia’s federal military within the Tigray conflict — have looted businesses, private properties, vehicles, and health clinics in Shire, a northwestern town that was captured from Tigray forces last month, two aid staff there told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.
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Several young people have been kidnapped by Eritrean troops in Shire, the help staff said. One said he saw “greater than 300” youths being rounded up by Ethiopian federal troops in several waves of mass detentions after the capture of Shire, home to a lot of internally displaced people.
“There are different detention centers across the town,” said the help employee, who also noted that Ethiopian federal troops were arresting people believed to be “associated” with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, the political party whose leaders led the war against the federal government.
Civilians accused of aiding Tigray forces are being detained within the southern town of Alamata, in keeping with a resident there who said Amhara forces had arrested several of his friends. A former regional official said Amhara forces are also carrying out “mass” arrests within the town of Korem, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Alamata, and in surrounding rural areas.
Each the Alamata resident and the previous regional official, like some others who spoke to AP, requested anonymity due to safety concerns in addition to fear of reprisals.
The continuing presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray stays a sore point in the continuing peace process, and the U.S. has called for his or her withdrawal from the region.
The military spokesman and government communications minister in Ethiopia didn’t reply to a request for comment. Eritrea’s embassy in Ethiopia also didn’t respond.
Eritrea, which shares a border with Tigray, was not mentioned within the text of the cease-fire deal. The absence of Eritrea from cease-fire negotiations had raised questions on whether that country’s repressive government, which has long considered Tigray authorities a threat, would respect the agreement.
A subsequent implementation accord, signed by military commanders in Kenya, states that the Tigray forces will disband their heavy weapons “concurrently with the withdrawal of foreign and non-(federal) forces from the region.”
Yet aid officials, diplomats and others inside Tigray say Eritrean forces are still lively in several areas of Tigray, hurting the peace process. Eritrean troops have been blamed for among the conflict’s worst abuses, including gang rapes.
Tigrai Television, a regional broadcaster based within the Tigrayan capital of Mekele, reported on Nov. 19 that Eritrean soldiers killed 63 civilians, including 10 children, in an area called Egela in central Tigray. That report cited witnesses including one who said affected communities were being prevented from burying their dead.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the importance of implementing the peace deal, “including the withdrawal of all foreign forces and the concurrent disarmament of the Tigray forces” in a phone call Monday, in keeping with State Department spokesman Ned Price.
4 youths were killed by Eritrean forces within the northwestern Tigray town of Axum on Nov. 17, a humanitarian employee told the AP. “The killings haven’t stopped despite the peace deal … and it’s being carried out in Axum exclusively by Eritrean forces,” the humanitarian employee said.
An announcement from Tigray’s communication bureau last week said Eritrea’s military “continues committing horrific atrocities in Tigray.” That statement charged that Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki “is bringing more units into Tigray though (he’s) expected to withdraw his troops” following the cease-fire deal.
The brutal fighting, which spilled into the Amhara and Afar regions as Tigray forces pressed toward the federal capital last yr, was renewed in August in Tigray after months of lull.
Tigray is within the grip of a dire humanitarian crisis after two years of restrictions on aid. These restrictions prompted a U.N. panel of experts to conclude that Ethiopia’s government probably used “starvation as a technique of warfare” against the region.
Ethiopian authorities have long denied targeting civilians in Tigray, saying their goal is to apprehend the region’s rebellious leaders.
Despite the African Union-led cease-fire, basic services resembling phone, electricity and banking are still switched off in most parts of Tigray. The U.S. estimates a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals might have been killed within the war marked by abuses on all sides.
The cease-fire deal requires federal authorities to facilitate “unhindered humanitarian access” to Tigray. The World Food Program said Friday it had sent 96 trucks of food and fuel to Tigray for the reason that agreement although access to parts of central and eastern Tigray stays “constrained.”
Unhindered access into Tigray has not yet been granted despite the variety of trucks going into the region, with several restrictions remaining in place, an aid employee said Friday. There are limits on the amount of money humanitarian organizations can take into Tigray, while checkpoints and military commanders impede the movements of aid staff throughout the region, the help employee said.
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