amnesty international is calling it a
horrific tragedy
scores and possibly hundreds of
civilians have been stabbed and hacked
to death
in the northern ethiopian region of
tigrai
witnesses say local forces fighting
government troops in the region are to
blame for the killings
in may kadera but they so far deny
carrying out the attacks
the victims are thought to be day
laborers not involved in the conflict
facilities flared last week after the
government accused the tigrit people's
liberation
front of attacking a government military
camp
the u.n is warning of a humanitarian
crisis as thousands flee to neighboring
sudan
as we report the stability of the whole
region is feared to be at stake
this is a country sliding into civil war
these ethiopians have come not to enjoy
themselves
but to give blood for their soldiers
fighting integra
state the main aim of
the blood donation program is to express
our affection our respect for our army
the conflict is not with instagram we
not with the tegra people
not with the tigray region it's rather
with
her junta group who have
attacked our army in a shameful
way the conflict erupted in early
november
the government sent troops into the
region after an alleged attack by local
forces on a federal army base in
tigray's capital
the federal government had every right
to deploy federal security forces and
use force
in order to apprehend those implicated
in massive corruption
and gross human rights violation
relations between the ethiopian prime
minister and the tigray people's
liberation front have long been tense
for nearly 30 years the tplf was
dominant in ethiopian politics
but abi curbed the party's influence
after coming to power in 2018
its leaders say they have been unfairly
targeted
a constitutional dispute raised tensions
to boiling point
the tplf defied abby's decision to
postpone national polls
due to the coronavirus pandemic in
september they went ahead with elections
in tigre
which they control not only the
stability of ethiopia is at stake in
this conflict
the country with its population of 110
million
is pivotal to the stability of the horn
of africa as a whole
in 2019 abi won a nobel peace prize for
his sweeping political reforms
and his role in brokering peace with
eritrea
after a bloody border war but so far
he's failed to heed the calls of the un
and the african union for a ceasefire in
the conflict
well for more on this story let's bring
in sem doubly he's
with amnesty international's crisis
response team and joins us
from berlin some amnesty uh brought the
news about tigarai
uh the tigran massacre to the world
getting information
on the region is hard with phone lines
and the internet down
how do you access and verify your
information
yeah so uh very nice to be with you
today um we we
first became aware of of this uh
massacre and mikhail
in south in the southwest zone of tigre
region um
two days ago um we started looking into
images and eventually videos that
started appearing on social media and
took this very seriously
um as you rightly say it's it's been
very hard to communicate with the region
so any information that has been coming
out of the region needs to be
very carefully and very thoroughly
checked um we spent
a good amount of time going through
these videos going through these
photographs making sure that they were
they were taken captured recently making
sure that they weren't from
previous events um from from the region
um to to really you know verify and to
make sure
we we know what what had happened in
micadra and we coupled that with with
interviews of witnesses and people who'd
spoken to
eyewitnesses uh from the mikado region
so we're very confident when we're
saying that uh several hundred
civilians were stabbed or hacked to
death um in in mikhail who who did this
we're unsure although people have told
us
that it's members of the tigray people's
liberation front although we cannot
independently confirm that
sam your organization has also urged the
ethiopian government to restore
communications and allow monitors to
access the regions
are they actually responding uh so far
not
uh but uh we're obviously always open to
to communication
um we're we're very keen and we really
do
implore the authorities which we saw all
communication to degrade
this is essential to to ensure
accountability and transparency for all
operations on both sides of this of this
conflict all the military operations in
the region
uh and also very key to ensuring that
people can communicate with other in
accordance with their right freedom of
expression
but monitoring this situation is very
important
as you as you said in your report as you
said in your introduction there are a
thousand
several thousand refugees crossing the
board into sudan
it's very key that the ethiopian
authorities
ensure that on all sides that
international humanitarian law and
international human rights law is
respected throughout
this conflict talking about that what
what is most urgently needed to support
the many civilians now affected by this
conflict
um i think it's it's key that uh the
international community really presses
ethiopia to investigate
not only what's happened in mikada uh on
the 9th of november on the 10th of
november but also
that the international community presses
ethiopia to ensure
all sides of the conflict protect
civilians there'll be urgent need for
assistance also over the border in sudan
which i think the international
community
has to step up and make sure that the
the civilians crossing into that sudan
are provided for
but really i think where the where the
international community must intervene
is really to press
ethiopia the ethiopian authorities to
investigate what's going on
and to ensure that uh international
humanitarian law and international human
rights law is respected throughout
sem dubli from amnesty international's
crisis response team thanks for joining
us here on dw news
thank you well let's go uh live to the
ethiopian capital addis ababa
where journalist samuel gatichu is
standing by
samuel the u.n is now calling for a full
uh
inquiry into possible war crimes what
has been confirmed so far
what has been confirmed is that people
are indeed dying in tigray
with little attention given by us
because we can't even go and
report from uh the site um and the
ethiopians are
happy that the u.n and even amnesty
international is coming abroad
and uh telling us exactly what we've
been hearing for a long long time
and the un human rights commissioner is
no stranger to ethiopia having be
she is from chile grew up in the
pinochet era
and she knows exactly what war crimes
looks like and this is what
looks like to us there are also reports
that ethiopian police gave the order
of identifying ethnic tigrans from all
government
agencies and ngos does that mean that
this is turning into an ethnic conflict
that has been confirmed so far we've
heard
rumors we're checking i know reuters did
report
on it uh and the government is denying
that's
that's what's happening but we have to
check
we have to make sure that that's exactly
what's happening
but we also have to know this ethnic uh
conflicts in ethiopia
is nothing new you know minorities
have been attacked in the last
since a year ago and even amnesty
international this is a
second report that it released within
the month of november uh saying that uh
minorities are being attacked not just
in tegra
but in many many regions all across the
country this looks like uh at ethnic
uh warfare from from from from what i
see and what i hear
within living in ethiopia many civilians
in the area are already relying
on on aid how badly could they be a fact
affected by this well you have to know
that the tigray region
hosts uh refugees from eritrea
um the kind the state is aid dependent
uh it's an area where you can't even
farm because that's
you know it's it's a land that can't be
farmed
so it relies on aid for money money of
a good percentage of its its population
so we can only
uh speculate uh in terms of the kinds of
people that are being affected
even transportation taking food from
other parts of ethiopia
and going to tegra it's not allowed so
i'm sure people are suffering and
famine is closer to a reality this is an
area where i
suffered because of famine some 30 years
ago and this is like relieving
what ethiopia experienced a long time
ago
is there also a risk you think that
since this is turning into an ethnic
kind of conflict that other countries
will be drawn into it
well um as i've been saying ethiopia is
an important nation within the region
so what happens in ethiopia is certainly
uh going to spill over to
neighboring countries south sudan being
one of them
a country that has only known war since
the day
it got it it's its independence some
nine years ago in sudan so what happens
in ethiopia
as much as what happens in sudan uh
spills over to
both countries so this isn't just an
ethiopian problem
it might even extend to europe uh
with all these migrants heading to
european nations
so it's going to be a huge disaster not
just for the african continent
but for the world and that's why it
needs to be taken really seriously
so i'm going to get to you in addis
ababa thank you very much for your input
thank you thank you
you