© Finbarr O’Reilly/ The New York Times
About The War on Tigray
Tigray is a peaceful region determined to reduce poverty and improve the lives of its people. Tigray welcomed the new Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, with enthusiasm hoping he will continue improving the lives of Ethiopians and Tigrayans. To everyone’s dismay, however, the situation took an unexpected turn. On November 4, 2020, Ethiopians learned that Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Amhara regional state jointly launched a war on Tigray with the pretext of “law enforcement.”
Summary of Effects of the War
Over 600,000 Tigrayan civilians have been killed as a result of the coordinated assault on Tigray by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF); the invasion by special forces, militia and vigilante youth groups from Ethiopia’s Amhara Region; foreign troops from neighboring Eritrean and Federal Republic of Somalia; and reported UAV support from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from their then base on the Eritrean coastline.
The conflict has been devastating, as approximately 4.5 million Tigrayans are in need of emergency food relief, and continue to face forced starvation by the Ethiopian Federal Government. Intentional starvation as a weapon of warfare is a war crime, a human rights violation and a tactic used in genocide.
© Finbarr O’Reilly/ The New York Times
Over 120,000 girls and women are feared to be victims of coordinated gang rapes by the invading forces. The use of sexual violence as a weapon of warfare is a war crime, a human rights violation and genocidal tactic. The trauma of this war and the brutality and cruelty of weaponizing rape and torture of civilians has been of a magnitude that many have ever witnessed and/or heard of.
The conflict has been devastating, as approximately 4.5 million Tigrayans are in need of emergency food relief, and continue to face forced starvation by the Ethiopian Federal Government. Intentional starvation as a weapon of warfare is a war crime, a human rights violation and a tactic used in genocide.
© Finbarr O’Reilly/ The New York Times
Over 65,000 Tigrayans have fled to neighbouring Sudan to seek refuge from the ongoing genocide. Several investigative reports indicate that many more would likely have escaped if Ethiopian and Eritrean troops had not blocked the border crossing to Sudan. This mass displacement has quickly bloomed into a crisis as food, water and medical resources are incredibly scarce in these refugee camps. According to several human rights organizations, displacement into such conditions constitutes a human rights violation.
A string of videos and reports evidencing mass roundups and killings of Tigrayans were authenticated and reported on by: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Telegraph, New York Times, CNN, BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, France 24 and Deutsche Welle, among many others.
​© Tiksa Negeri/ Reuters