kabarsula Ethiopia: African Union must convene emergency session on Ethiopia as new conflict expands bandar SLOT INDONESIA

The African Union must convene an emergency session on the situation in northern Ethiopia as the latest armed conflict which broke out in the Tigray and parts of Afar and Amhara regions on 21 September expands, Amnesty International said today.

Since the outbreak of fresh fighting, the organization has continued to receive credible reports of destruction of civilian objects through shelling and air strikes, intensified forced conscription, and other acts that may constitute violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

“The African Union’s Peace and Security Council cannot wait for mass atrocities to unfold or for a surge in civilian casualties before placing Ethiopia, its host country, on the agenda. The AU, which was one of the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement that has now effectively collapsed, must learn from past mistakes and urgently activate its response mechanisms and mobilize its member states before it is too late,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

“The starting point is for the Peace and Security Council to urgently convene an emergency session on the situation in Ethiopia. This is especially critical as fears of regionalisation of the conflict are on the rise”.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council cannot wait for mass atrocities to unfold or for a surge in civilian casualties before placing Ethiopia, its host country, on the agenda. The AU, which was one of the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement that has now effectively collapsed, must learn from past mistakes and urgently activate its response mechanisms and mobilize its member states before it is too late.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

The fighting between Tigrayan forces and their allies on one side, including Amhara Fano forces, and the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and its allies, on the other, has significantly intensified across southern Tigray and the Northern Amhara and Western Afar regions since it began a week ago. In addition to the extensive use of heavy weaponry, the renewed hostilities have involved intensified aerial attacks across Tigray including in the town of Axum and the regional capital Mekelle.

Amnesty International is particularly alarmed by reports that civilian infrastructure, including several schools, has been damaged or targeted during aerial attacks. Fighting involving heavy weapons in and around the towns of Maychew and Alamata has reportedly resulted in civilian casualties and further endangered critical civilian infrastructure.

The disruption of communication services across Tigray, and parts of Afar and Amhara regions combined with increasing restrictions on civic space by the Ethiopian government, raises serious concerns that grave human rights violations could occur under the cover of darkness, hidden from independent monitoring.

“Disrupting communications in conflict-affected areas is a well-documented pattern in Ethiopia’s armed conflicts. Such restrictions have frequently concealed atrocities and isolated civilians from the outside world. We call on all relevant authorities to immediately restore access to communications services and ensure civilians are not cut off from life-saving information and assistance at this critical time,” said Tigere Chagutah.

The current outbreak of conflict in Tigray and the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions comes on the backdrop of six years of persistent armed conflict across Ethiopia, including in the Oromia region. These armed conflicts have devastated communities across the country with most of the armed actors involved in the fighting linked to serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Yet, despite the scale and gravity of these abuses, meaningful and independent accountability remains largely absent.

Disrupting communications in conflict-affected areas is a well-documented pattern in Ethiopia’s armed conflicts. Such restrictions have frequently concealed atrocities and isolated civilians from the outside world. We call on all relevant authorities to immediately restore access to communications services and ensure civilians are not cut off from life-saving information and assistance at this critical time.

Tigere Chagutah

“Regional and international actors, including the AU, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the UN, must address the deeply entrenched accountability crisis in Ethiopia. They must take urgent measures to protect civilians from harm, renew efforts to restore independent investigations into serious violations committed by all parties to Ethiopia’s conflicts, and ensure unhindered access for journalists, humanitarian organizations, and human rights monitors,” said Tigere Chagutah.

Background

The Peace and Security Council (PSC) is AU’s standing decision-making body for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts in Africa. During the 2020-2022 armed conflict in Tigray and parts of Afar and Amhara regions, the PSC held its first session on the situation in Ethiopia in November 2021, one year after the conflict began.

The conflict was described by the UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) as ‘one of the deadliest conflicts of the twenty-first century.’ Reports indicate that hundreds of thousands of people died, millions were displaced, and thousands of women and girls were subjected to conflict-related sexual violence and other grave violations.

The conflict was marked by an unprecedented communications blackout as civilians in Tigray were largely cut off from telephone services, internet access, and other forms of communication for more than a year.

Although hostilities formally ended in November 2022, the consequences of the conflict continue to be felt. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people remain unable to return home. Victims of serious violations continue to await truth, justice, and reparations.