in a update for the United Nations Human Rights Council (OHCHROn the situation in the northernmost regional state of Ethiopia, Ms. Bachelet said the conflict “has continued unabated” and “threatens to spill over into the entire Horn of Africa”.
In the past few months, “mass arrests, killings, systematic looting and sexual violence” “have created an atmosphere of fear and erosion of living conditions resulting in the forced displacement of the Tigrayan civilian population. The suffering of civilians is widespread, and impunity is rampant.”
joint investigation
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also informed the Council of the progress of the joint investigation between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission after the completion of the fieldwork phase of the report.
The full range of information collected is currently being analyzed, but Ms Bachelet said it was already clear that the documented cases included multiple allegations of human rights abuses.
These included attacks on civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances. Sexual and gender-based violence also included gang rape, sexual torture, and racially-oriented sexual violence.
Violations by all parties
According to Mrs. Bachelet, Government forces and their allies remain implicated in allegations of human rights abuses.
Reports also indicate that ethnic Tigrayans have been detained by law enforcement officials on ethnic grounds, mostly in Addis Ababa.
I noticed that Incitement to hatred and discrimination targeting people of the Tigrayan race has also been documentedAs well as attacks on journalists, suspension of media licenses and shutdown of internet and telecommunications in Tigray.
Ms. Bachelet added that Tigrayan forces have also been responsible for attacks on civilians, including indiscriminate killings that have displaced nearly 76,500 people in Afar and an estimated 200,000 in Amhara.
She said that more than 200 people were killed in the recent clashes in these areas, and 88 people were injured, including children.
There have also been reports of Tigrayan forces recruiting children into the conflict, which is prohibited under international law.
Avoid national division
Ms. Bachelet urged the Government of Ethiopia to accept the recommendations of the joint investigation report to be issued on 1 November 2021 and to grant human rights and humanitarian actors unimpeded access. It called on all parties to immediately end hostilities and negotiate a permanent ceasefire “to avoid the risk of Ethiopia’s rupture.”
WHO air bridge
The largest single shipment of humanitarian goods to date has been flown to Ethiopia by the World Health Organization (Who is the), the UN agency said on Monday.
85 metric tons of life-saving medical supplies were transported by chartered flight from the World Health Organization’s logistics hub based in Dubai to Addis Ababa on Friday. Supplies, including essential medicines, emergency and trauma surgery kits, syringes, consumables, equipment, and cholera kits, are sufficient to meet the urgent needs of more than 150,000 people.
“This handover will help strengthen our efforts to provide relief to hundreds of thousands of families in dire humanitarian situation,” said WHO Representative in Ethiopia, Dr. Borima Hama Sambo.
Currently, approximately 2.5 million people require health assistance from WHO and partners. The shipment to Ethiopia concluded a historic week for the WHO’s Dubai Logistics Centre. Four times the weekly average of more than 450 metric tons of medical supplies valued at more than $4.3 million has been dispatched to support the response to the cholera outbreak in Nigeria, severe drug shortages in Afghanistan, and trauma and surgical supplies to Syria and Yemen.
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