The Diplomat
The Government has expressed its “deep concern” over the “grave human rights violations” perpetrated by “both sides” in the armed conflict that has pitted the Ethiopian Federal Government against the Regional Government of the Tigray region in the north since last November.
Last November 4, the troops of the Ethiopian National Defense Force launched an attack against the forces of the Tigrfay Regional Government, held by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a former ally of the Addis Ababa regime currently at odds with the Executive of Abiy Ahmed. This conflict, as explained by the Spanish Government in a recent parliamentary response to the Socialist Group on this issue, “has caused thousands of deaths and the displacement of some 950,000 people, many of them having fled to Sudan, according to United Nations estimates”.
“Spain considers alarming the serious violations of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law perpetrated in the framework of this conflict, denounced by the United Nations, international Human Rights non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, as well as by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission itself”, it continued.
These violations “include massacres of hundreds of civilians of which both sides accuse each other, arbitrary arrests and detentions, killings, as well as discrimination and stigmatization of the Tigray ethnic group throughout the country, and cross-campaigns of incitement to ethnic hatred and violence in the media and social networks”, the Government denounced.
Among the abuses committed are the killing of hundreds of civilians of Amhara origin by forces loyal to the Tigray Regional Government in the first week of the conflict, the “numerous violations of international humanitarian law” committed by the two parties against the civilian population, the obstructions to humanitarian aid and the “killings, abductions and forced returns to Eritrea of thousands of Eritrean refugees in Tigray and outside the region carried out by the Federal Government, according to allegations received by the United Nations”.
“The foreign policy of the Government of Spain is based on the promotion and protection of human rights at the global level, so it unequivocally condemns all violations of international human rights law, including ethnic violence and persecutions as well as all actions perpetrated in the framework of the conflict in the region of Tigray likely to constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and increase the dangers of genocide”, said the Executive, which also considered “of crucial importance that such violations do not go unpunished”.
Apart from that, Spain welcomes “with satisfaction” the measures aimed at re-establishing communications in the Tigray region, as well as the involvement of the International Community to defuse the crisis, including the European Union, which last December postponed the disbursement of almost 90 million euros in budget support payments to Ethiopia. “The Government of Spain together with the EU encourages all parties to the conflict to put an end to the conflict and to engage in a dialogue that addresses issues of peace and coexistence through consensus building”, it concluded.
