Human rights organisation Amnesty International said Eritrean troops allied with Ethiopia’s government had committed atrocities in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray despite a ceasefire.

The human rights group said this in a report released on Monday.

It added that Eritrean soldiers extrajudicially executed civilians and sexually enslaved women for months after signing a peace agreement.

Amnesty maintained that the soldiers were equally responsible for rape and looting, saying the acts amounted to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.

A two-year civil war over Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray region resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and only ended in November with the agreement of a ceasefire between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) under the mediation of the African Union.

Amnesty International staff spoke to 11 women who said they had been raped or sexually enslaved after the signed Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.

In addition, more than 40 women gave similar accounts to a local civil society organisation.

The report said some had been raped in a military camp run by Eritrean forces, others in their own homes or homes occupied by the forces.

Amnesty said it also spoke to witnesses, survivors and family members of at least 20 civilians executed during house-to-house searches by Eritrean forces.

A local social worker counted more than 100 extrajudicial executions of civilians, though Amnesty has not been able to confirm the figure independently.

According to the United Nations, several hundred thousand people have died during the conflict since November 2020.

The research group International Crisis Group has described the conflict in the populous country in the Horn of Africa, with its 120 million inhabitants, as one of the deadliest worldwide. 

(dpa/NAN)