Tigray forces raped and killed civilians in Ethiopia’s civil war, says Amnesty International

Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) accused of killing and raping dozens of people during the conflict

A woman walks in front of a damaged house which was shelled as federal-aligned forces entered the city, in Wukro, north of Mekele (AFP/Getty)

Tigrayan forces killed civilians and gang-raped dozens of women and underage girls in two towns in Ethiopia’s Amhara region last year during the country’s civil war, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

Rebel fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) shot dead at least 24 people in Kobo on one day in September, according to the human rights organisation,

Amnesty interviewed 30 rape survivors who detailed atrocities in Chenna and Kobo between August and September after TPLF forces seized control of the towns.

Nearly half the victims of sexual violence said they were gang-raped, with doctors telling Amnesty that some survivors had suffered lacerations likely caused by rifle bayonets being inserted into their genitals.

A 14-year-old schoolgirl told the rights group she and her mother were both raped by TPLF fighters who said the attacks were in revenge for atrocities committed against their own families.

“One of them raped me in the courtyard and the other raped my mother inside the house,” she said.

“My mother is very sick now, she is very depressed and desperate. We don't speak about what happened; it is impossible.”

The investigation follows the publication of an Amnesty report in November which documented sexual assaults by Tigrayan rebels in the Amhara town of Nifas Mewcha.

Tigray refugees who fled the conflict en route to temporary accommodation (AP)

Sarah Jackson, Amnesty’s deputy regional director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, accused Tigrayan forces of showing “an utter disregard for fundamental rules of international humanitarian law”.

“Evidence is mounting of a pattern of Tigrayan forces committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in areas under their control in the Amhara region from July 2021 onwards”, she said.

The 15-month civil war has been marked by accusations of massacres, mass rape, and ethnic cleansing, with reports of atrocities on both sides.

Residents of Kobo said TPLF fighters shot dead unarmed civilians, apparently in a revenge killing spree after facing resistance to their advance by Amhara militias.

“The first dead bodies we saw were by the school fence,” one male resident told Amnesty. “There were 20 bodies lying in their underwear and facing the fence and three more bodies in the school compound. Most were shot at the back of their heads and some in the back.

“Those who were shot at the back of their heads could not be recognised because their faces were partially blown off,”

The TPLF did not respond to the latest allegations, Amnesty said. But the rebel group has previously criticised the group over its earlier report on alleged atrocities in Nifas Mewcha, saying it would conduct its own probe and bring perpetrators to justice.

The TPLF has previously denied allegations of killings and rape by its forces.

A fighter loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) mans a guard post on the outskirts of the town of Hawzen (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

In December 2021, rebellious Tigrayan forces fighting the Ethiopian government announced their withdrawal from two key regions in the north of the country, a step towards a possible ceasefire after 13 months of brutal war.

The war in Africa’s second most populous nation has destabilised an already fragile region, sending 60,000 refugees into Sudan, pulling Ethiopian soldiers away from war-ravaged Somalia and sucking in the army from the neighbouring nation of Eritrea.

Thousands of civilians have been killed, around 400,000 are facing famine in Tigray, and 9.4 million people are estimated by the UN need food aid across northern Ethiopia as a result of the conflict.

A joint investigation by UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet's office and the government-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published last November found evidence of "serious abuses" by all sides, saying that some violations may amount to crimes against humanity.