Interview
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After more than a year of investigation with more than 400 witnesses, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have concluded that the Western Tigray region has been the prey of outright ethnic cleansing.
Since November 2020, Western Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia, has been the subject of ethnic cleansing, according to a joint report by the NGOs Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published on Wednesday. The culprits named by the report are the local authorities and the security forces of Amhara, a neighboring region. Over the past few months, human rights researchers from both NGOs have devoted themselves to a meticulous collection of evidence and testimonies. Release spoke with one of the report’s lead authors, Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, a research consultant with Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Unit.
Could you summarize in a few sentences the conclusions of the study you co-edited?
Our report is the result of a long process. More than a year of research. It is based on over 400 interviews with victims, family members and other witnesses. Our report reveals that, since the beginning of the conflict in November 2020, the authorities as well as the security forces of the Amhara region have carried out a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans in the Western Tigray region. They are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including homicide, rape…