Following last month’s release of a joint report by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the United Nations citing widespread human rights abuses in the country, a U.N. human rights body voted Friday to establish a group of experts to further monitor human rights abuses in Ethiopia as a yearlong war between government forces and forces in the country’s Tigray region continues.

Ethiopia’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Zenebe Kebede Korcho, called the move “neocolonialist” and said it was a “deliberate destabilization effort.” The government “will not cooperate with any mechanism imposed on it,” he said.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said that there was “value added” in continuing to investigate alleged human rights violations, but that the formation of a new group was “repetitive, counterproductive to ongoing implementation processes, and further delays redress for victims and survivors.”

The group will have a one-year mandate.

“The conflict has continued with ongoing fighting beyond the borders of Tigray. Our office continues to receive credible reports of severe human rights violations and abuses by all parties,” Nada al-Nashif, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, told representatives at Friday’s session. “The humanitarian impact of the conflict is increasingly dramatic.”

‘Gravely concerned’

The U.S. State Department in a statement Friday said it was “gravely concerned” about reports “alleging mass detentions, killings and forced expulsions of ethnic Tigrayans in western Tigray by Amhara security forces.”

It called on Amhara leaders to “renounce violence against civilians” and on Eritrea “to remove its forces from Ethiopia.”

“We urge the Ethiopian authorities to investigate these reports to determine their veracity and to commit to inclusive, transparent processes to hold responsible those accountable,” the statement said.

Last month’s report said human rights violations including torture, extrajudicial executions, and sexual and gender-based violence, including gang rapes, were being committed by all sides in the conflict.

The war in Ethiopia began in November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed deployed troops to Tigray in response to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front’s seizure of military bases.

The ensuing conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced several million from their homes and left more than 9 million people dependent on food aid.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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