ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed confirmed for the first time on Tuesday that Eritrean troops entered northern Tigray during the five-month conflict, the first recognition after months of denial.
In a parliamentary speech, he also acknowledged for the first time that atrocities such as rape were committed during the fighting and that the promised perpetrators would be punished.
Fighting broke out in Tigray after forces loyal to the ruling party there – the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) – attacked army bases across the region overnight and in the early hours of November 4.
The attacks initially oppressed the federal military, who later mounted a counter-offensive alongside Eritrean soldiers and forces in the nearby Amhara region.
The TPLF, which dominated the government of Ethiopia for almost three decades until Abiy came to power in 2018, has long been an archenemy of Eritrea.
Abiy said Eritrean troops crossed the border because they feared being attacked by TPLF forces, but the Eritreans promised to leave when Ethiopia’s military could control the border. The TPLF repeatedly fired rockets at Eritrea after the start of the conflict.
The governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia have repeatedly denied Eritrea’s involvement in the war, despite reports from human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Annesty International, which documented the killing of hundreds of civilians by Eritrean soldiers in the holy city of Axum.
Reuters journalists traveling to Tigray last week saw hundreds of men wearing Eritrean uniforms on buses with Eritrean signs on the main road between the regional capital Mekelle and Shire, and on the main streets of Shire.
Abiy quoted the Eritreans as saying to the Ethiopian authorities: “You left the trenches while looking for the enemy in the center of Tigray. So, while you attacked them, they can come to us. We control areas along the border because we have our national security concerns. . But if your army can control the trenches, we will leave the next day. “
He said the Ethiopian government had also raised accusations of widespread looting and rights abuses by Eritrean soldiers in Tigray.
“The Eritrean government has strongly condemned this and said it will be responsible if any of its armies participate in it,” he said.
Dozens of witnesses in Tigray told Reuters that Eritrean soldiers routinely killed civilians, raped gangs and tortured women, as well as looted civilian families and crops. Some provided images of Eritrean trucks loaded with household products.
The Eritrean Information Minister told Reuters he believes the speech was poorly translated, but did not answer questions about which part was poorly translated or questions about reports of atrocities.
ATROCITIES
Abiy also addressed reports of abuses by Ethiopian soldiers.
“There have been atrocities committed in the Tigray region … reports indicate that atrocities were being committed by raping women and looting property,” he said, without naming the accused forces.
“Any member of the national defense who commits rape and looting against our Tigrayan sisters will be held responsible.”
But Tigray’s police service is not working and civilian officials have told Reuters they do not have the capacity to investigate the military.
The United Nations raised concerns about the atrocities committed in Tigray during the conflict, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the acts carried out in the region as “ethnic cleansing”, charges that Ethiopia has denied.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jalina Porter said that Senator Chris Coons had a successful meeting with Abiy in Addis Ababa to discuss the Tigray conflict.
“Prime Minister Abiy, you know, has publicly pledged to deepen meaningful dialogue with the international community to address this conflict in Tigray, and he has also publicly shared that he has condemned human rights violations,” she said.
In his parliamentary speech, Abiy also addressed a border dispute with Sudan, which is hosting about 60,000 refugees from Tigray and which is in dispute with Ethiopia for a giant hydroelectric dam that Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile.
Abiy sought to cool tensions over disputed agricultural land on the border, where dozens of people were killed in low-intensity clashes.
“Sudan is a sister country. We don’t want to fight Sudan,” said Abiy. “Sudan is not in a position to fight any neighbors, it has many problems. Ethiopia also has a lot of problems, we are not ready to go to battle, so we don’t need war. It is better to resolve peacefully. “
(Reporting by Addis Ababa newsroom; additional reporting by Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, edited by Jon Boyle and Giles Elgood)