Ethiopia news explorer5/31/2023 ![]() Most refugees then faced an arduous days-long trek to the Ethiopian town of Sheraro and the contested border town of Badme, then under Eritrean control. As of January 6, active fires and smoke plumes are visible over the humanitarian infrastructure located on the northeastern part of the camp. ![]() Between January 5 and 8, Eritrean forces destroyed and burned shelters and humanitarian infrastructure in the camp, leaving significant parts of the camp in ruins.īefore and after satellite imagery collected on January 5 and 6, 2021, shows the progressive expansion of the burn scars in Hitsats refugee camp, in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. The Eritrean forces returned and ordered all remaining refugees to leave along the main road toward Eritrea. On January 4, following heavy clashes near the camp, Tigrayan forces withdrew from Hitsats. In Hitsats, Tigrayan militias and special forces, and members of an unidentified armed Eritrean group, arbitrarily detained hundreds of refugees, apparently to identify refugees who collaborated with the Eritrean forces or who were responsible for looting in the town. “Both in Eritrea, and now, here, I am not protected.” “I am a double victim,” said a 27-year-old woman whom Tigrayan militia fighters raped along with her 17-year-old sister while they fled Hitsats. They then marched the refugees back to Hitsats. In the ensuing days, Tigrayan militia attacked, arbitrarily detained, and sexually assaulted some of the refugees who had fled, notably around Zelazle and Ziban Gedena, north of Hitsats. Tigrayan forces returned on the evening of December 5, shooting into the camp, and sending hundreds of refugees fleeing. ![]() The Eritrean forces withdrew from the camp in early December. Eritrean forces also removed the 17 injured refugees from the camp, taking at least one – and likely others – back to Eritrea, ostensibly for treatment. Their whereabouts have not been revealed. The Tigrayan militia retreated from Hitsats after the fighting.Įritrean forces later detained approximately two dozen refugees in the camp and took them away in military vehicles. Two dozen residents in Hitsats town were also reportedly killed during and after the clashes that day. As he came back to help me enter the church, they shot him.” One refugee said that Tigrayan militia fighters killed her husband as their family tried to seek shelter inside the church: “My husband had our 4-year-old on his back and our 6-year-old in his arms. Nine refugees were killed and 17 badly injured. Clashes between the militia fighters and Eritrean soldiers ensued in and around the camp, lasting several hours. On November 23, Tigrayan militia entered Hitsats camp and attacked refugees near the camp’s Orthodox church. Some refugees took part in the looting, contributing to community tensions. They occupied and pillaged the town and took over the refugee camp. On November 19, Eritrean forces arrived in the town of Hitsats and indiscriminately killed several residents. Analysis and graphic © Human Rights Watch Satellite image showing a snapshot of the substantial damage to most residential structures across the different settlement zones in Hitsats refugee camp, in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. “The horrific killings, rapes, and looting against Eritrean refugees in Tigray are evident war crimes.” “Eritrean refugees have been attacked both by the very forces they fled back home and by Tigrayan fighters,” said Laetitia Bader, Horn of Africa director at Human Rights Watch. Fighting that broke out in mid-July in Mai Aini and Adi Harush, the two other functioning refugee camps, again left refugees in urgent need of protection and assistance. Eritrean forces also targeted Tigrayans living in communities surrounding the camps. ![]() All warring parties should cease attacks against refugees, stay out of refugee camps, and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.īetween November 2020 and January 2021, belligerent Eritrean and Tigrayan forces alternatively occupied the Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps that housed thousands of Eritrean refugees, and committed numerous abuses. (Nairobi) – Eritrean government forces and Tigrayan militias have committed killings, rape, and other grave abuses against Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Human Rights Watch said today. Analysis and graphic © Human Rights Watch. Satellite image collected after the destruction of Hitsats refugee camp, in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region offers a snapshot of the extensive damage to humanitarian infrastructure. ![]()
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