UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet
GENEVA, Dec 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it has deployed humanitarian assessment teams to the troubled Tigray region in northern Ethiopia.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said that two humanitarian assessment missions were able to enter Tigray on Monday.
The deployment of the humanitarian assessment team comes as people in the war-torn region increasingly face lack of overall humanitarian access, following seven weeks of conflict between the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and federal forces.
Lack of humanitarian aid coupled with an ongoing communications blackout in many areas, raises increasing concerns about the situation of civilians, the commissioner said.
However, Bachelet urged Ethiopian authorities to provide unhindered access to the whole of Tigray to protect civilians.
“While we welcome the Ethiopian Government’s statement that there would be unimpeded humanitarian access, in line with the agreement with the UN signed on November 29, this needs to be to all areas of Tigray where civilians have been affected by the fighting,” Bachelet said.
“We have received allegations regarding violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, including artillery strikes on populated areas, the deliberate targeting of civilians, extrajudicial killings and widespread looting.
“These reports point to failure by the parties to the conflict to protect civilians. This is all the more concerning that fighting is said to be continuing, particularly in some areas of north, central and southern Tigray.”
Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced or have fled across the border to Sudan.
Bachelet also echoed the concern expressed by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, for the safety and wellbeing of some 96,000 Eritrean refugees registered in four camps in Tigray when the fighting started.
Given the current restrictions, the UN Human Rights Office said it is not in a position to verify reports on the ground but said it has received consistent information pointing to violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law by all parties to the conflict.
Among the accounts, witnesses described artillery strikes on the town of Humera on the border with Eritrea between November 9 and 11.
The UN Human Rights Office interviewed several people from the town who alleged that shells launched from Eritrea had hit residential areas and the hospital.
The Ethiopian army and regional Amhara forces and militia then reportedly took control of Humera, allegedly killing civilians and looting the hospital, banks, businesses, supermarkets and private houses.
Artillery strikes against the town of Adigrat in early November reportedly forced many families to flee to the mountains, where they were then trapped by heavy fighting between Nov 20 and 24, with many people reported to have been killed. — NNN-AGENCIES
