ADDIS ABABA: Eritrean troops allied with Ethiopia’s government “committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity” in Tigray, raping, enslaving and executing civilians for months after the signing of a peace agreement, Amnesty International said Tuesday.
Dubbed the “North Korea” of Africa, Eritrea was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 after sending troops into Tigray in support of Ethiopia’s federal forces, with its soldiers accused of murder, rape and looting during the two-year war.
The deal inked in November 2022 between Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan rebels called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from the region.
But Eritrea was not a party to the agreement and its troops continue to be present in border areas, according to residents.
Amnesty interviewed 49 people in May and June in the border districts of Mariam Shewito and Kokob Tsibah, corroborating their testimonies with satellite imagery as well as the accounts of social workers, medical experts and government officials.
“Despite the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, atrocities against civilians in Tigray continued with Eritrean soldiers subjecting women to horrific abuse including rape, gang rape and sexual enslavement, while civilian men were extrajudicially executed,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s East and Southern Africa director.
“The serious violations documented in this report amount to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity,” the rights watchdog said.
Some women were raped inside an Eritrean military camp while others were attacked and kept prisoner in their own homes.
A single mother of three told Amnesty she was repeatedly raped for three months and held in a military camp with 14 other women.
“They kept taking turns raping me,” she said, adding that the soldiers also deprived their victims of food and water.
Another woman, aged 37, said she was beaten and raped for nearly three months by soldiers inside her own home.
“They told me, ‘Whether you shout or not, no one is going to come and rescue you.’ And then they raped me.”
Amnesty also documented the execution of 24 civilians, including one woman, between November 2022 and January 2023, citing interviews with survivors, eyewitnesses, victims’ families and local officials.
The Eritrean and Ethiopian authorities did not respond to Amnesty’s preliminary findings, the rights group said, urging both governments to investigate the allegations.
Amnesty called on the UN’s Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia next week.
In its first report published last September the commission said it had found evidence of widespread violations by all sides and accused Ethiopia and Eritrea of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Amnesty also urged the African Union’s rights commission to “rescind its decision” to scrap an investigation into atrocities in Tigray without publishing a report on its findings or recommendations.
Ethiopia has repeatedly rejected international efforts to investigate abuses connected with the war in Tigray and warned that any probes could undermine the progress of the AU-brokered peace agreement.
During a rare press conference in Kenya earlier this year, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki dismissed accusations of rights abuses by Eritrean troops in Tigray as “fantasy.”
Despite the peace deal, media access to Tigray remains restricted and it is impossible to independently verify the situation on the ground.
Eritrean troops ‘committed war crimes’ in Ethiopia after peace deal: Amnesty
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Eritrean troops ‘committed war crimes’ in Ethiopia after peace deal: Amnesty
- Some women were raped inside an Eritrean military camp while others were attacked and kept prisoner in their own homes
Philippines to tighten guard at locations in South China Sea
- Philippine Coast Guard deploys ship to Sabina Shoal on the Spratly archipelago, where it accused China of building an artificial island
The Philippine Coast Guard said on Saturday it had deployed a ship to Sabina Shoal on the Spratly archipelago, where it accused China of building an artificial island, having documented what it said were piles of dead and crushed coral on the sandbars.
Jonathan Malaya, spokesperson of the National Security Council (NSC), said NSC chief Eduardo Ano had ordered a tighter guard at locations within Manila’s 200-nautical mile economic zone, as a long-standing diplomatic row with Beijing intensifies.
“No one will guard (these locations) except us. It is our responsibility under international law to guard (them) and ensure that the environment there would not be damaged and that there won’t be reclamation activities,” Malaya told a regular television program.
China claims almost all the South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, and has carried out extensive land reclamation on some islands, building military facilities, causing concern in Washington and the region.
China’s foreign ministry on Monday dismissed Manila’s latest accusation as “groundless and pure rumor.”
“Recently, the Philippine side has repeatedly spread rumors, deliberately smeared China and attempted to mislead the international community, which is futile,” spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing.
He urged Manila to “return to the right track of properly settling maritime disputes through negotiation and consultation.”
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said its presence at the Escoda shoal had deterred China from doing small-scale reclamation, but that scientists would have to determine whether the piles of coral were natural or man-made.
He said the coast guard was committed to maintaining a presence at the shoal, just over 120 nautical miles from the Philippine province of Palawan.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, a vital waterway, had no basis under international law, a decision that China rejects.
The Sabina Shoal, known locally as Escoda, is the rendezvous point for vessels resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a grounded warship at the Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila and China have had frequent run-ins.
Ano has called for Chinese diplomats to be expelled over the alleged leak of a phone conversation with a Filipino admiral about the maritime dispute.
On Monday, the Philippine foreign ministry said it would look into reports of “illegal and unlawful activities” by diplomatic officials, but did not name China.
3 men charged in the UK with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service
- The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act
LONDON: Three men have been charged with allegedly assisting Hong Kong intelligence services and with foreign interference, London’s Metropolitan Police said Monday.
The men will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged under the National Security Act.
Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, have each been charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service.
“While these offenses are concerning, I want to reassure the public that we do not believe there to be any wider threat to them,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command.
“This investigation remains ongoing, but now that charges have been brought, I urge people not to speculate or comment further in relation to this case.”
Hong Kong’s security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong did immediately respond to requests for comment.
Floods kill 43 in Indonesia’s West Sumatra, 15 missing
- Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow in three districts in West Sumatra province
- Around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday
TANAH DATAR: Flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia’s West Sumatra province killed at least 43 people over the weekend while a search for 15 missing people continued, authorities said on Monday.
Torrential rain on Saturday evening triggered flash floods, landslides, and cold lava flow — a mud-like mixture of volcanic ash, rock debris and water — in three districts in West Sumatra province, Abdul Malik, chief of the provincial rescue team, said.
The cold lava flow, known in Indonesia as a lahar, came from Mount Marapi, one of Sumatra’s most active volcanoes.
In December, more than 20 people were killed after Marapi erupted. A series of eruptions has followed since.
“The heavy rain swept materials such as ash and large rocks from the Marapi volcano,” said Abdul Malik, who later added in a statement that 43 people had died and 15 remained missing.
“Cold lava flow and flash floods have always been threats to us recently. But the problem is, it always happens late at night until dawn,” he said.
Abdul said around 400 personnel, including rescuers, police, and military, were deployed to search for the missing people on Monday, helped by at least eight excavators and drones.
The national disaster and management agency BNPB said in a statement almost 200 houses were damaged and 72 hectares (178 acres) of lands, including rice fields, were affected. At least 159 people from Agam district were evacuated to nearby schools.
Footage shared by BNPB showed roads and rice fields covered by mud. Video also showed the wreckage of damaged homes and buildings, while the floods brought logs and large rocks into settlements.
Eko Widodo, a 43-year-old survivor, said: “The flooding was sudden and the river became blocked which resulted in the flow of water everywhere and it was out of control.”
German court backs intelligence agency’s designation of far-right party as suspected extremist case
- The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency was justified in designating the far-right Alternative for Germany as a suspected case of extremism, a court ruled Monday, rejecting an appeal from the opposition party.
The administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the BfV intelligence agency, upholding a 2022 decision by a lower court in Cologne, German news agency dpa reported. Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has rejected the designation strongly.
The party could still seek to appeal the verdict at a federal court.
AfD was formed in 2013 and has moved steadily to the right over the years. Its platform initially centered on opposition to bailouts for struggling eurozone members, but its vehement opposition to then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in large numbers of refugees and other migrants in 2015 established the party as a significant political force.
AfD has been polling strongly in Germany in recent months as discontent is high with center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government.
However, its support declined somewhat following a media report in January that extremists met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some figures from the party attended. The report triggered mass protests in the country against the rise of the far-right.
Two Americans, one Russian citizen among 20 detained in Georgia, Russia’s TASS reports
- 20 people detained at protests in Tbilisi while Georgian lawmakers were debating a “foreign agents” bill
Tbilisi: Some 1,000 protesters stood firm outside parliament in Georgia on Monday, vowing not to back down in their fight against a Russia-styled “foreign agent” bill, a day before it’s due to be adopted.
Protests have gripped the small Caucasus nation for weeks over the bill, which critics say will erode democracy and derail the ex-Soviet republic’s long-held ambition of joining the European Union.
Critics say the measure, which resembles one Russia has used to crack down on dissent, will steer Tbilisi back under Moscow’s influence.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has portrayed it as necessary for Georgia’s sovereignty, saying it will boost transparency of civil groups’ funding.
The bill is due to go for a third and final reading in parliament on Tuesday.
On Monday, it passed a committee vote, a final step before it goes for a vote in parliament.
The bill targets NGOs that receive foreign funding, with Georgian Dream’s billionaire backer Bidzina Ivanishvili accusing them of working on foreign orders and plotting a revolution.
Part of Tbilisi’s main Rustaveli Avenue was closed off around parliament on Monday.
Hundreds of riot police officers lined a street behind parliament, and some scuffles broke out between them and protesters.
Authorities a day earlier warned that they would arrest people who blocked parliament, but thousands defied the warning and came to the parliament’s gates anyway.
“We are planning to stay here for as long as it takes,” 22-year-old Mariam Kalandadze told AFP.
“This law means not joining Europe,” she said, adding that “this is something that I have wanted my whole life.”
