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Thousands died in the two-year conflict, which formally came to
an end in November last year. Both sides accused each other of
atrocities, including massacres, rape and arbitrary detentions,
but each denied responsibility for systemic abuses.
"While the signing of the agreement may have mostly silenced the
guns, it has not resolved the conflict in the north of the
country, in particular in Tigray, nor has it brought about any
comprehensive peace," Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the
International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia,
said in a statement accompanying the report.
"The situation in Ethiopia remains extremely grave," he added.
In its report, the Commission said human rights violations in
Tigray were "grave and ongoing", and said there had been attacks
by the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) against civilians.
Eritrea, which sent in troops to fight alongside the Ethiopian
government forces during the conflict, has rejected accusations
from residents and rights groups that its soldiers committed
abuses in Tigray.
The Commission's report said violations "have been abetted or
tolerated by the federal government, which has failed in its
legal duty to protect its population from violations by a
foreign army, or by Amhara militia present in the areas of
Western and Southern Tigray."
The report said the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, Eritrean
Defense Forces and allied regional special forces carried out a
"widespread and systematic attack" against civilian populations.
"It finds that members of these forces committed the crimes
against humanity of murder, torture, rape, acts of a sexual
nature of comparable gravity, sexual slavery, enslavement
imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty..." the
report said.
Ethiopia's government and its armed forces have repeatedly
denied that their soldiers committed widespread crimes on their
own, or with Eritrean forces, and have promised to investigate
complaints of individual abuses.
Authorities from the Ethiopian region of Amhara have also denied
that their forces committed atrocities in neighboring Tigray.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew
Heavens)
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