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Amnesty International accuses TPLF rebel fighters of gang raping women in Ethiopia


Ladies from the Amhara city of Nifas Mewcha informed Amnesty that fighters related to the Tigray Individuals’s Liberation Entrance (TPLF), which has been combating Ethiopia’s central authorities in a year-long conflict within the nation’s north, dedicated widespread rape and sexual violence in mid-August.

CNN has not interviewed the ladies and can’t independently confirm the claims.

“The testimonies we heard from survivors describe despicable acts by TPLF fighters that quantity to conflict crimes, and doubtlessly crimes towards humanity. They defy morality or any iota of humanity,” stated Agnès Callamard, Amnesty Worldwide’s secretary normal.

In keeping with Amnesty’s interviews, one girl, a 30-year-old meals vendor within the city, claimed TPLF fighters raped her in entrance of her youngsters, slapped and kicked her earlier than taking meals gadgets from her home.

“Three of them raped me whereas my youngsters had been crying,” she informed Amnesty Worldwide. They slapped me [and] kicked me,” she stated. “They had been cocking their weapons as if they will shoot me.”

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda on Wednesday denied the allegations and referred to as for an unbiased investigation. Getachew informed CNN by cellphone that whereas the TPLF took the allegations “very severely,” he believed they had been “principally groundless, as a result of our forces don’t indulge within the very practices of our enemy forces.”

A view overlooking the city of Gondar, in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
Reacting to the Amnesty report, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s workplace stated in a submit on Twitter: “The worldwide group is beginning to get up to the atrocities of the TPLF. Looting hospitals and heinous atrocities all through the Amhara area.”
Amhara forces aligned with the Ethiopian army entered Tigray final November to assist authorities troopers when the battle broke out. Since reclaiming the Tigrayan capital Mekelle and rejecting a government ceasefire in June, Tigrayan forces have moved into Amhara.

In addition to the assaults, Amnesty reported that the ladies had been denigrated utilizing ethnic slurs similar to ‘donkey Amhara’ and ‘grasping Amhara’ and had been unable to hunt medical help after their assaults as a result of the non-governmental group that gives care has left the area on account of safety issues.

Whereas CNN can’t independently affirm humanitarian entry to this city, the blocking of assist to elements of Ethiopia has been a standard characteristic of the battle. In Might, the UN confirmed military forces were impeding access to elements of Tigray, following a CNN investigation that exposed Eritrean troops had been coordinating with Ethiopian forces to chop off important assist routes.

In a press release final week, UN Secretary-Common António Guterres referred to as for unrestricted humanitarian entry to Tigray, Amhara and Afar. The UN additionally stated no assist convoys with provides had been in a position to enter Tigray since mid-October.

Amnesty’s report underlined that every one sides within the year-long conflict between the central authorities and Tigray’s former ruling celebration, the Tigray Individuals’s Liberation Entrance (TPLF), have been accused of finishing up human rights abuses.
Sexual violence against women and girls in Ethiopia's Tigray region amount to war crimes, Amnesty says
A CNN investigation in March revealed proof of ladies being gang raped, drugged and held hostage in Tigray, with a number of medical doctors alleging that rapes had been dedicated by Ethiopian authorities troopers and allied Eritrean forces.
A month later, the United Nations assist chief Mark Lowcock stated there was “little doubt that sexual violence was getting used as a weapon of conflict” in Tigray, with accusations made towards all events to the battle.

In August, a separate Amnesty Worldwide report detailed widespread rape and sexual violence carried out by troops and militias aligned with the Ethiopian authorities, together with the Amhara Regional Police Particular Power and Fano, an Amhara militia. To conduct the report, Amnesty interviewed medical professionals and 63 survivors of sexual violence between March and June 2021.

Abiy has stated that his authorities would hold accountable any soldier discovered chargeable for rape.

CNN has not beforehand reported accusations of sexual violence by TPLF fighters throughout the present battle.





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