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The international organization published a detailed report describing that at least 14 women and girls, some up to 14 years old, were raped in their homes in the Chenna and Kobo regions of Amhara. Survivors described that most of the acts were perpetrated in a group and sometimes in front of their children. The document also speaks of dozens of point-blank murders.
This Wednesday, February 16, Amnesty International released a document denouncing a series of outrages perpetrated by the rebel forces that lie in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, which maintain a conflict with the Government of Ethiopia.
The murders and sexual assaults occurred in Kobo and Chenna, where vandalism also occurred. The combatants looted inhabited houses, businesses and destroyed public facilities such as medical centers and schools.
AI’s report contains testimonies indicating that members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (PFLT) committed dozens of gang rapes against women and girls in the Amhara region, specifically in Chenna, near the capital of Bahir Dar.
At least 14 were the women who suffered sexual attacks (seven minors) in their own homes after the soldiers broke in and forced them to feed or cook them, according to the victims.
There is mounting evidence of a pattern of Tigrayan forces committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in areas under their control in the Amhara region since July 2021.https://t.co/dOjxS9QlYZ
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) February 16, 2022
These atrocities happened in late August and early September 2021, long after Tigrayan forces gained control of those areas last July. The attacks were marked by violence, death threats, ethnic slurs and derogatory comments, Amnesty International said.
Tigray, face of extreme violence
The human rights organization described in its investigation that the sexual assaults were combined with “shocking levels of brutality and beatings.”
Of 30 survivors interviewed, 14 claimed to have suffered multiple violations. Some even in front of their children.
Meanwhile, the report also refers to the fact that the rebels also “killed dozens of people” last year. In Kobo, the statements of 27 witnesses and survivors revealed denunciations of the death of defenseless civilians. They found the bodies of local residents and peasants executed with shots to the head, chest or back and some even with their hands tied.
A man recounted that he saw 20 corpses in their underwear lying in front of a school fence and another three inside the institution.
“Most had shots in the neck and some in the back,” he said.
Sarah Jackson, AI’s deputy director for East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes, said the Tigray forces showed “absolute disregard for the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.”
#ethiopia Evidence mounting of pattern of Tigrayan forces war crimes, possible crimes against humanity, in areas under their control in Amhara region since July 2021. Incidents of widespread rape, summary killings, looting. To@amnestyTo https://t.co/QaVrfqtqyI
— Sarah Jackson (@SJEastAfrica) February 16, 2022
“There are growing indications of the systematic commission of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by the Tigray forces in the areas under their control in the Amhara region since July 2021,” he said.
In addition, he added that these acts resurface debates about the need for “rapid action” by the international community to find out the abuses perpetrated “by all parties.”
According to UN records, more than five million people require humanitarian assistance in Tigray, Amhara and Afar. The dead have already exceeded 1,000 and there are two million who had to leave their homes due to the violence.
with EFE