Eritrean and Tigrayan forces kill, rape refugees – HRW

Eritrean soldiers and Tigrayan militias raped, detained and killed Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, an international rights watchdog said on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch reported attacks around two camps in Tigray, where local forces have battled the Ethiopian government and their Eritrean allies since November in a conflict that has rocked the Horn of Africa region.
“The horrific killings, rapes, and looting against Eritrean refugees in Tigray are clear war crimes,” said Horn of Africa’s director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), Laetitia Bader
Prior to the Tigray conflict, Ethiopia hosted around 150,000 Eritrean refugees, fleeing poverty and authoritarian government.
Much of the report focused on two camps – Shimelba and Hitsats – destroyed during the fighting.
HRW cited U.N. refugee agency UNHCR figures that 7,643 out of 20,000 refugees then living in Hitsats and Shimelba camps are still missing.
“In every house, people were killed,” one resident told HRW.

Reuters/Olajumoke Adeleke