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The ACHPR Tigray investigation is an African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) investigation of human rights violations occurring in the Tigray War including extrajudicial executions of civilians and sexual violence. The ACHPR established the Commission of Inquiry into the situation in the Tigray Region to carry out the investigation under ACHPR resolution 482 of 12 May 2021. [1]
The ACHPR decided to create a commission to investigate gross human rights violations occurring in the Tigray War in resolution 482 on 12 May 2021, referring to Ethiopia's obligations under articles 45(2) and 46 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, principles of non-interference, existing documentation on the human rights violations of the war, and other investigations such as the EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation. The Commission of Inquiry into the situation in the Tigray Region was established for a renewable period of three months, with a mandate to investigate gross human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions of civilians and sexual violence, by collecting evidence, identifying perpetrators, determining the underlying causes, and reporting results and making recommendations to prevent patterns of human rights violations from continuing. [1] In August 2021, the Commission was renewed for another three months. [2]
On 23 May 2023, the ACHPR terminated the mandate of the ACHPR Tigray investigation, citing the Ethiopia–Tigray peace agreement as the main reason for the termination. [3]
The Commission's headquarters are in Banjul, with the aim of travelling to Ethiopia and "neighbouring countries when conditions are met". [1] [4]
Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, vice-chair of the ACHPR, [5] is the chair of the Commission. The four other members initially included in the Commission are Maya Sahli-Fadel, Hatem Essaiem, Maria Teresa Manuela and Mudford Zachariah Mwandenga. [1]
The Commission has the right to co-opt forensic investigation, human rights or other experts as additional members. [1] In August 2021, human rights experts Fatsah Ouguergouz, Soyata Maïga and Lucy Asuagbor were retrospectively appointed as of June 2021. [6]
In September 2021, Commission chair Rémy Ngoy Lumbu stated that the Commission's report would be published by the end of 2021. [7] In July 2023, when the May 2023 termination of the investigation's mandate became known to Ethiopian media, [3] Addis Standard stated that the investigation had not been permitted to travel to Tigray Region and had not published a report on its findings. [8]
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is a quasi-judicial body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective (peoples') rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and considering individual complaints of violations of the Charter. This includes investigating human rights violations, creating and approving programs of action towards encouraging human rights, and set up effect communication between them and states to get first hand information on violations of human rights. Although the ACHPR is under a regional government facility, they don't have any actual power and enforcement over laws. This ends up in them drafting up proposals to send up the chain of command to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government and they will act accordingly.
The Tigray War was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the other.
The Mai Kadra massacre was a massacre and ethnic cleansing carried out during the Tigray War on 9–10 November 2020 in the town of Mai Kadra in Welkait in northwestern Ethiopia, near the Sudanese border. Responsibility was attributed to a pro-TPLF youth group and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the EHRC-OHCHR Tigray Investigation, preliminary investigations by Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), and interviews conducted in Mai Kadra by Agence France-Presse. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and EHRC reported that at least 5 Tigrayans were killed in Mai Kadra by Amhara militas such as Fano in retaliation. Tigrayan refugees in Sudan told multiple news outlets that Tigrayans in Mai Kadra were targeted by either Amhara militias, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), or both.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a national human rights institution (NHRI) established by the Ethiopian government. The EHRC is charged with promoting human rights and investigating human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The EHRC states organizational independence as one of its values. In October 2021, the EHRC's rating by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions for operation in accordance with the UN Paris Principles was upgraded from grade B to grade A.
Mai Kadra is a town in Tigray Region, Ethiopia near the Sudanese border. Mai Kadra was the site of the deadliest massacre during the Tigray War.
The Adigrat massacres were mass extrajudicial killings by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) that took place in and near Adigrat in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during late 2020 during the Tigray War. These included 86 civilians killed in Zalambessa around 13 November 2020, 8–15 in Hawzen on 25 November, 80–150 at the Maryam Dengelat church near Idaga Hamus on 30 November.(more than thousand Tigreans massacred by Eritrean troops in Axum on 27 Nov 2020)
Casualties of the Tigray War refers to the civilian and military deaths and injuries in the Tigray War that started in November 2020, in which rape and other sexual violence are also widespread. Precise casualty figures are uncertain. According to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium, as many as 600,000 people had died as a result of war-related violence and famine by late 2022. The scale of the death and destruction led The New York Times to describe it in November 2022 as "one of the world’s bloodiest contemporary conflicts."
All sides of the Tigray War have been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes since it began in November 2020. In particular, the Ethiopian federal government, the State of Eritrea, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Amhara regional forces have been the subject of numerous reports of both war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Beginning with the onset of the Tigray War in November 2020, acute food shortages leading to death and starvation became widespread in northern Ethiopia, and the Tigray, Afar and Amhara Regions in particular. As of August 2022, there are 13 million people facing acute food insecurity, and an estimated 150,000–200,000 had died of starvation by March 2022. In the Tigray Region alone, 89% of people are in need of food aid, with those facing severe hunger reaching up to 47%. In a report published in June 2021, over 350,000 people were already experiencing catastrophic famine conditions. It is the worst famine to happen in East Africa since 2011–2012.
Events in Hawzen in the Tigray War included five mass extrajudicial killings that took place in Hawzen in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War in November and December 2020 and January and February 2021, looting and destruction Hawzen Primary Hospital by the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF), and the establishment of a rape camp in the hospital by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF).
On 28 November 2020, Mekelle was hit with an airstrike campaign during the Mekelle offensive of the Tigray War.
The Bora massacre was a mass extrajudicial killing that took place in Bora in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 8 January 2021, with aftermath killings that continued up to 10 January. Bora is the capital town of woreda Bora-Selewa, Southern zone of Tigray.
The EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation is a human rights investigation launched jointly by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in mid-2021 into human rights violations of the Tigray War that started in November 2020. The EHRC–OHCHR joint investigation team's report was published on 3 November 2021.
The Humera massacre was an ethnic mass murder event carried out in November 2020 in the town of Humera in the Tigray Region of northwestern Ethiopia, next to the Sudanese border. The massacre took place during an armed conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal government of Ethiopia. Refugees attributed the massacre to Amhara militias, including Fano, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).
The Galikoma massacre was an indiscriminate killing of civilians perpetrated by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) in the village of Galikoma in the Afar Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 5 August 2021. Galikoma is a village in the Gulina district of Fanti zone in Afar Region.
The TDF–OLA joint offensive was a series of military battles starting in late October 2021 opposing a coalition of the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) against the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) in the context of the Tigray War and the OLA insurgency. The TDF and OLA took control of several towns south of Tigray Region in the direction of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in late October and early November. Claims of war crimes included that of the TDF extrajudicially executing 100 youths in Kombolcha, according to federal authorities.
The International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) was established by the UN Human Rights Council in December 2021. The mandate of the commission is to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights law, humanitarian law and refugee law in Ethiopia committed since 3 November 2020 by all parties to the conflict. The Commission comprises three human rights experts and is appointed for a renewable one-year term. In October 2022 at the Human Rights Council's 51st session, the Commission's mandate was extended to December 2023.
Events in the year 2023 in Ethiopia.
During the Tigray War, the town of Wukro was damaged heavily, and was the scene of numerous killings and massacres committed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF). It was bombed in mid-November 2020, then shelled by artillery fire a few weeks later, resulting in heavy destruction of property and multiple civilian deaths. There was looting of public and private property, leaving shops empty and the local hospital destroyed. Occupying soldiers engaged in sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and detention of civilians through at least March 2021. These massacres in Wukro received international attention in media articles.
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