The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (ECHR) on Sunday accused the Ethiopian armed forces of being responsible for the death of a man burned alive in the northwest of the country, whose ordeal was the subject of a video circulating on social networks.
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Ethiopian authorities on Saturday announced an investigation into a video of a helpless man being set on fire by a group of men, some wearing Ethiopian army uniforms, who insult him in Amharic , the official language in Ethiopia.
The ECHR, an independent body attached to the Ethiopian government, said on Sunday that the victim was a Tigrayan who was “burned alive (…) with the participation of state security forces and other persons“.
The case unfolded on March 3 in northwestern Ethiopia, in the Benishangul Gumuz region, which borders Sudan and South Sudan.
According to the Commission, an attack the day before had killed around twenty people in the region. The security forces then arrested and shot dead eight Tigrayans suspected of having carried out this attack. “The bodies of the victims were taken to a nearby wood to be burned“says a press release from the ECHR, citing eyewitnesses.
“It was then that a man of Tigrayan origin suspected of having had contact with the alleged attackers was arrested and thrown (into the fire) with the dead“, adds the Commission.
“Those present at the time are soldiers from the Ethiopian Army, Amhara Region Police Force and Southern Region Police Force“, specifies the ECHR by calling for the opening of criminal proceedings.
The video could not be authenticated and independently verified by AFP and there is no specific indication that it is linked to the conflict that has affected northern Ethiopia since December 2020, between Tigrayan rebels and Ethiopian federal forces. .
This conflict in northern Ethiopia has claimed thousands of victims and both sides have already been repeatedly accused of various human rights violations and a long list of atrocities.
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According to the United Nations, more than two million people have lost their homes and more than nine million are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of the conflict.