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It is both a major explosion that could redesign the Ethiopia of tomorrow and one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of recent years. The fratricidal war in Tigray continues to play out far from the spotlight, however, in the north of the country of 110 million inhabitants, between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). Since November 4, 2020, the date of the outbreak of the conflict, a large smoke screen has covered Tigray. The strict regime of telecommunications cuts imposed on the province obstructs the view of observers, who are most often kept physically away. When, with difficulty, facts emerge, they are systematically denied, diverted, distorted by an intense propaganda war.
It is easy for the armies of propagandists, often from the Ethiopian diasporas, to spread rumors and accusations, in particular of “Genocide”, of which each community claims to be a victim since the beginning of the conflict, at the risk of dangerously exacerbating inter-ethnic tensions. How many Ethiopians were victims of the war? Thousands ? Tens or even hundreds of thousands? If no assessment or even no estimate has been really put forward as to the lives lost and the extent of the damage caused by the conflict in Tigray, several reports allow us to lift the veil on the atrocities committed.
The main one is the result of a joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Released November 3, she puts words, figures and places on a war whose atrocities are constantly manipulated. The document does not provide a full picture of the horrors of the conflict, but it does give a relatively authentic picture. “This report does not claim to be exhaustive, but rather to faithfully represent a pattern of abuse committed in Tigray”, explains Daniel Bekele, the commissioner of the EHRC. His observation is chilling: “Human rights violations [au Tigré] are equivalent to crimes against humanity and war crimes. “
Ethiopian and Eritrean forces targeted
The EHRC and OHCHR conducted a total of 269 interviews in Tigray. They list and describe as many cases of executions, torture, detentions, sexual violence and forced displacement. Rapes in meetings, by their recurrence, give the impression of a desire for collective punishment inflicted on the region and its inhabitants. While the vast majority of them affect women, particularly those whose relatives have joined the ranks of the TDF, men and young boys are no exception. The investigation mentions the story of a 16-year-old teenager, driven to suicide after being raped in turn by nine Eritrean soldiers in the town of Humera.
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