Ethiopia publicly accused Eritrea of committing mass killings

Ethiopia publicly accused Eritrea for the first time of committing mass killings

during the two-year war in the Tigray region, which ended in 2022. The Ethiopian government has publicly accused Eritrean forces of carrying out massacres of civilians in the Tigray region during the conflict from 2020 to 2022. These accusations were part of a broader allegation of atrocities, extrajudicial killings, and human rights violations during the war. The Tigray War began in November 2020, when the Ethiopian federal government, together with Eritrean troops and the regional Amhara forces, launched a military offensive against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Eritrea's involvement was initially denied by both Ethiopia and Eritrea, but later confirmed. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told Parliament that Eritrean troops participated in massacres in Axum and other locations. Throughout the conflict, there have been numerous reports of massacres, sexual violence, and ethnic attacks perpetrated by various parties, including Eritrean forces. High-profile incidents such as the Axum massacre (November 2020) and the Mai Kadra massacre have been extensively documented by international human rights organizations. On November 28 and 29, 2020, Eritrean soldiers carried out a multi-day massacre in the historic city of Axum. They systematically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians in the streets, homes, and churches, often through indiscriminate shelling or executions. Eyewitnesses reported at least 240 to 800 deaths, including many men and youths; bodies were buried in mass graves near churches such as Axum Tsion St. Mariam. Amnesty International verified this through interviews with 41 survivors and satellite imagery; looting and further violence ensued. The offensive aimed to recapture Axum from Tigray militias as part of the war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). Amnesty International classifies the killings as a suspected crime against humanity. The Mai Kadra massacre took place on November 9 and 10, 2020, in the town of Mai Kadra in Ethiopia's Tigray region during the early stages of the Tigray War. It was a massacre of civilians, primarily ethnic Amhara seasonal workers, by a Tigrayan youth militia known as "Samri," supported by local police and other forces allied with Tigray. The attackers raided homes and beat, stabbed, strangled, and killed non-Tigrayans with machetes, knives, axes, and ropes after verifying their ethnicity based on identification documents or appearance. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) described it as a “widespread and systematic attack” on civilians, with the killings beginning before the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) entered the town. The EHRC reported at least 600 dead, but the actual number could be higher. 1,100; Amnesty International, based on verified photos and videos of stabbing injuries, confirmed “likely hundreds.” After the ENDF and Amhara forces captured Mai Kadra on November 10, at least five Tigrayans were killed in retaliatory killings. The massacre occurred before the ENDF advance amid a conflict between the regional government, led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and the Ethiopian federal forces. Many perpetrators fled to Sudan; investigations by the EHRC, the OHCHR, and Amnesty International were hampered by communication breakdowns. The EHRC classified the act as an atrocity. Eritrea rejected the accusations, calling them false and "despicable." In a significant reversal, the Ethiopian government under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed finally recognized Eritrea's presence and condemned its actions. In March/April 2021, the Ethiopian federal government explicitly accused the Eritrean armed forces of committing atrocities and demanded their withdrawal from Tigray. Investigations by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and later a joint report by the UN Human Rights Commission of Ethiopia documented systematic human rights violations and implicated the Eritrean armed forces in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ethiopia's public accusation against Eritrea marked a turning point in the conflict and underscored the serious human rights violations and the difficulty of holding perpetrators accountable in a complex geopolitical environment.