Under the eyes of the world and the African Union Crimes against humanity … Tigrayans are crying out for help
Ethiopia is witnessing an intense conflict in the Tigray region between the federal government headed by Abiy Ahmed, and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front led by Diprusion Gebremikail; since the start of the conflict on November 4 and its escalation and the intervention of the Ethiopian armed forces in order to impose control over the region with its heavy machinery and big numbers in front of the mechanisms of the People’s Liberation Front of Tigray, which possesses many equipment and machinery, the civilians became defenseless under the bombardments and military operations on both sides, which made them, sometimes, victims with the intensification of battles on the ground. And the videos received from the town of Maya Kadra, which witnessed a crime against humanity, where hundreds lost their lives at the hands of the PFLP soldiers after they stormed the town and began to claim many lives from the unarmed civilians while using bladed weapons such as knives and machetes, and this is what was seen and documented from the bodies lying on the ground or carried on stretchers in flagrant defiance of all international agreements and treaties that affirm the protection of Human life in times of armed conflicts, and the emphasis on human values that respect and safeguard the principle of the right to life.
The National Association for the Defense of Rights and Freedom warns of the aggravation of the crisis and calls on everyone to stop the violence and return to negotiations under the supervision of the African Union and the United Nations to stop the ongoing violence and protect the lives of civilians in the Tigray region, whose population in the last census in 2017 reached 5.247 million people, representing 6.0% of The total population of the state of Ethiopia, which poses a threat to a humanitarian catastrophe, and stresses on the importance of moving international mechanisms and bodies to help the displaced people on the Sudanese borders, whose numbers reached 11,000 displaced children, women and elders until yesterday, and they are in need of health care and nutrition, and to help the State of Sudan receive More displaced people from the ravages of violence on both sides.
The National Association for the Defense of Rights and Freedoms calls on the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission to clarify the truth about the massacres and disasters that have not been revealed due to the interruption of communications and electricity, which confirms that the Tigrayans have been subjected to many forms of violence and torture, and in order for everyone to bear their responsibility, we must investigate the crimes well, taking into account that the humanitarian aid does not reach Tigray due to the military operations there, with the arrival of information about the targeting of relief crews in Tigrayan region and the recent killing of four of them, but things are getting worse with the shortage of food and medicine.
We are facing a great humanitarian responsibility now, and the African Union must move to stop the crisis with the Ethiopian government and the Tigray Liberation Front, and that the necessary mechanisms must be activated in order to force the conflicting parties to sit down and give priority to the welfare of civilians, simple workers and farmers, and to protect their lives, which is the principle upon which the process is built Negotiation and within the framework of respect for international law, especially that we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the displaced on the Sudanese borders.
