ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian forces have committed “widespread attacks amounting to war crimes against medical professionals, patients, and health facilities” in the conflict-torn Amhara region, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
The northern region was under a state of emergency until last month after fighting erupted there between federal forces and the Fano “self-defense” militia in August 2023.
In a 66-page report based on interviews with 58 people, including victims and eyewitnesses, global rights watchdog HRW said it had documented attacks by federal forces and a pro-government militia against “medical workers, health care facilities, and transports in at least 13 towns.”
“Soldiers beat, arbitrarily arrested, and intimidated medical professionals for providing care to the injured and sick, including alleged Fano fighters,” HRW said, adding that troops also “unlawfully attacked ambulances” and prevented hospitals from functioning.
“Federal forces have obstructed access to medical facilities, including by wrongfully arresting patients on mere suspicion of a Fano affiliation, causing widespread fear for those that may seek or need treatment,” it added.
The rights group said that international humanitarian law offered “special protections to health facilities, medical professionals, patients, and ambulances.”
But HRW deputy Africa director Laetitia Bader said Ethiopia’s federal forces “operating with near impunity are unsurprisingly disregarding civilian lives by attacking medical facilities.”
HRW noted that humanitarian agencies have struggled to operate in the region of 23 million people, with nine aid workers killed since fighting erupted, including four fatalities this year.
Media access to Amhara has also been heavily restricted, while the mandate of a UN commission of experts investigating atrocities in Ethiopia expired in October, leading to limited subsequent monitoring of rights abuses in the country, HRW said.
A report released last month by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that “Ethiopian federal forces and the Fano militia had been involved in numerous violations of international humanitarian law, resulting in over 2,000 civilian casualties in the Amhara region,” HRW said.
Bader called for “much greater international scrutiny” of the rights situation in Ethiopia.
“So long as the government feels no pressure to hold abusive forces to account, such atrocities are likely to continue,” she warned.
The violence in Amhara reignited concerns about Ethiopia’s stability, months after a peace agreement was signed in November 2022 to end a two-year conflict in the neighboring region of Tigray.
Amhara forces and the Fano supported Ethiopian troops during that war but fell out after Addis Ababa signed the 2022 peace deal, fueling a sense of betrayal among the Amhara, who have a history of land disputes with the Tigray region.
Rights group accuses Ethiopia of attacks on medical facilities
https://arab.news/28vaj
Rights group accuses Ethiopia of attacks on medical facilities
- Documented attacks by federal forces and a pro-government militia against ‘medical workers, health care facilities, and transports in at least 13 towns’
Zelensky says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defenses
- While President Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv’s defenses.
The Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Belarus remains a steadfast ally, though longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the conflict.
“We note that the Russians are trying to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighboring Belarus. This is risky for Belarus,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a military staff meeting.
“It is unfortunate that Belarus is surrendering its sovereignty in favor of Russia’s aggressive ambitions.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.
“Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-story apartment buildings, which help guide ‘Shaheds’ (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this.”
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the staff meeting also discussed ways of financing interceptor drones, which officials in Kyiv see as the best economically viable means of tackling Russian drone attacks, which have grown in intensity in recent months.
The president said the Ukrainian military’s general staff had been charged with working out changes to strategy in fending off air attacks “to defend infrastructure and frontline positions.”
Lukashenko this month said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as impossible to intercept, had been deployed to Belarus and entered active combat duty.
An assessment by two US researchers, reported by Reuters on Friday, said Moscow was likely stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik at a former air base in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe.
