The United Nations has condemned atrocities uncovered in a joint investigation into the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region on Wednesday, a day after the country’s government announced a nationwide state of emergency and called on citizens to take up arms against the advance of Tigrayan forces toward its capital.
The investigation — which is the only human rights probe to have been allowed into the blockaded Tigray region since fighting broke out between the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and the Ethiopian government last year — did not lay blame for hostilities and human rights violations at the feet of one group.
Instead, it said that all parties to the conflict, including forces from Eritrea and Ethiopia’s Amhara region allied with the government, had “committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” to varying degrees.
Reacting to the findings, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that the report “clearly established the claim of genocides as false and utterly lacking of any factual basis.”
