Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff traveling in Ethiopia’s Tigray region saw Ethiopian soldiers shoot dead four civilians, the medical aid agency said yesterday, denouncing violence in the five-month-old conflict.
Fighting between Ethiopian government troops and the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the mountainous region with a population of about 5 million.
Although the government declared victory late in November last year, the fighting has continued, with the UN and aid groups saying that the insecurity is preventing badly needed aid from reaching hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Photo: AP
MSF said that its staff members were traveling in a clearly marked vehicle between the regional capital, Mekelle, and the town of Adigrat on Tuesday when they encountered what appeared to be the aftermath of an ambush of an Ethiopian military convoy.
“Military vehicles were still on fire,” MSF said in a statement.
Ethiopian soldiers stopped the MSF vehicle and two public minibuses following it, MSF said.
“The soldiers forced the passengers to leave the minibuses. The men were separated from the women, who were allowed to walk away. Shortly after, the men were shot,” the aid group said.
Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the government’s emergency task force on Tigray; Billene Seyoum, spokeswoman for the prime minister; and Mulu Nega, head of Tigray’s interim administration, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
MSF said that its staff saw the bodies of those killed on the side of the road.
Shortly after the MSF vehicle drove away, it was stopped and another group of soldiers pulled the driver out, beat him with a gun butt and threatened to kill him, before allowing him to drive back to Mekelle, it said.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday acknowledged for the first time that atrocities such as rape had been committed and said that soldiers committing crimes would be punished.
“Any member of the national defense who committed rape and looting against our Tigrayan sisters will be held accountable,” Abiy told the Ethiopian parliament.
He did not say who would hold the military accountable.
Police and the courts are not functioning in Tigray, and the military has not responded to complaints about rape and other abuses, Tigray officials say.
On Monday, the UN urged the warring parties to protect civilians and hold perpetrators accountable.
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