HRW says “Risk Of Renewed Cycles Of Atrocities Is All Too Real” 

Borkena

Toronto – Akshaya Kumar, Director of Crisis Advocacy at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), on Friday published a dispatch on Ethiopia. 

The report tends to see  “risk of renewed cycles of atrocities is all too real” as escalation is mounting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, and also between Eritrea and Ethiopia. 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s accusation of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) over channeling the region’s budget to military spending and defense Chief of Statt, Berhanu Jula, remark on TPLF as a ” ‘criminal clique’ that needs to be eliminated,” cited as indication for the escalating tension. 

“Tensions have risen since Ethiopian authorities and the TPLF repeatedly appealed—without success—for international mediation,”  Akshaya wrote. 

The Eritrea-Ethiopia confrontation is another reason for potential renewed conflict in the region which has not yet recovered from the devastating war between the years 2020 and 2022. 

The conflict came to an end, it appeared at the time, with the signing of the Pretoria Agreement in November 2022 after claiming an estimated 600,000 lives or more.   Following patterns of violations of the agreement on both sides, the state actors released a joint letter in March 2025 calling for parties to the agreement to uphold it. (The story is here).

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been accusing Eritrea of working with the TPLF to start another war in the region. On the contrary Eritrea has been accusing Ethiopian authorities of provocation and violations of its sovereignty as the Ethiopian government intensifies pursuit of access to the Red Sea “by any means necessary.” 

“Now is the moment for diplomacy and de-escalation. The key guarantors of the truce—the African Union, Kenya, South Africa, and the United States—and Ethiopia’s partners should immediately mobilize to prevent further human rights abuses, and the AU needs to publicly report on violations of the truce, including against civilians,” the statement said. 

The HRW statement noted atrocities from the previous conflict highlighting that Ethiopia and Eritrea have not  “credibly prosecuted those responsible for the atrocities.” 

The TPLF was also indicted in egregious human  rights abuse in the Afar and Amhara regions of Ethiopia where the conflict spread to between 2020 and 2022. The TPLF is belived to have committed a genocide in plance like Maykadra and Chena – among other parts of the Amhara region. However, these atrocities were not highlighted in the report. 

The Afar regional state of Ethiopia recently released a statement alleging the TPLF forces crossed into the region and controlled about six  villages in the Megal district. In what appears to be a response to it, the Ethiopian Defense Force carried out a drone strike along the Tigray-Afar regional boundaries. The TPLF has claimed that there were casualties on its part without specifying the number. The Ethiopian government did not confirm that it carried out the attack. 

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