Tigray civilians face fresh danger as clashes return, says Amnesty

Amnesty International has warned that residents of Tigray are at renewed risk of human rights violations after fresh clashes broke out between Tigrayan forces and the Ethiopian National Defence Force.

The rights group issued the warning after violence returned to parts of Tigray, Ethiopia’s northern region, on 1 August, raising fears of a wider collapse of the fragile peace deal that ended the two-year war in 2022.

Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said the renewed violence was taking place while communities were still dealing with the devastation of past atrocities and the absence of justice.

“The resumption of violence in Tigray region puts residents at renewed risk of human rights violations, even as communities continue to grapple with the devastating legacy of past atrocities without justice or accountability,” said Chagutah.

Amnesty said renewed fighting, together with continuing armed conflicts in Amhara and Oromia, requires urgent action to restore regional and international human rights investigative mechanisms in Ethiopia. The organisation called on both federal and Tigrayan authorities to comply with international human rights standards, protect civilians, and allow unhindered access for independent human rights monitors and humanitarian actors.

Al Jazeera reported that fighting broke out in western Tigray near Sheraro, marking one of the most serious breaches of the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement.

Tigray’s regional government accused federal forces of launching an assault at dawn, while Ethiopian government figures accused forces loyal to TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael of starting the clashes. Both sides have accused each other of failing to implement the Pretoria Agreement, which formally ended the war between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigrayan forces in November 2022.

The renewed fighting follows months of deteriorating relations between Addis Ababa and the TPLF, with disputes over disarmament, the legal status of the TPLF and control of contested areas left unresolved.

Amnesty warned that international and regional monitoring in Ethiopia had weakened sharply after the termination of key investigative mechanisms. Those included the UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region.

The rights group said the collapse of those mechanisms was followed by the Ethiopian government’s abandonment of its transitional justice initiative, which it had previously relied on to counter international accountability efforts.

The UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia released its final report in 2023, detailing violations committed during the two-year war in Tigray, Amhara, Afar and the conflict in Oromia before its mandate was terminated.

The commission implicated Ethiopian federal forces, Eritrean forces and allied regional forces in mass killings, widespread and systematic rape and sexual violence, deliberate starvation, forced displacement and large-scale arbitrary detentions that it said amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. It also accused Tigrayan forces of killings, rape and sexual violence, destruction of property and looting amounting to war crimes.

Human rights groups had warned at the time that terminating the commission’s mandate would leave victims without a credible international mechanism and increase the risk of renewed abuses.

A report by the New Lines Institute later found strong evidence that Ethiopian forces and their allies had committed acts of genocide against Tigrayans during the war. The report concluded that there was a reasonable basis to believe that members of the Ethiopian National Defence Force, Amhara Special Forces and Eritrean Defence Forces had committed genocide against Tigrayans.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have denied accusations that war crimes were carried out during the conflict.

Amnesty said human rights organisations have documented a growing pattern of repressive measures by Tigrayan authorities over the past two months, including the silencing of independent media, forced conscription campaigns affecting thousands of people, and restrictions on freedom of movement.

The organisation renewed its call for the international community to engage urgently with authorities in Addis Ababa and Mekelle to restore access for independent media and human rights monitors across conflict-affected areas of Tigray.