The latest alleged abuses appear to be linked to the Tigray forces' recent momentum, which Ethiopia's government asserts has been blunted after the prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former soldier, went to the battlefront himself. They let them go with nothing, while the young remained behind," one witness in Rawyan told the human rights groups. The United Nations has estimated that 20,000 people were recently evicted from western Tigray, most of them women, children and the elderly. The human rights groups are calling on Ethiopian authorities to end the attacks on civilians and immediately grant access to western Tigray for aid groups. "The global paralysis on Ethiopia's armed conflict has emboldened human rights abusers to act with impunity and left communities at risk of feeling abandoned," Human Rights Watch's Laetitia Bader said.

Source: Ethiopian News December 16, 2021 16:37 UTC