Social Media Situation Report on the Conflict in Ethiopia (July 26 – August 25, 2021)

Summary

• On August 3, 2021, BBC reported about another possible series of human rights violations in the westernmost parts of Tigray, which is still under the control of Amhara forces and the Eritrean army.  Bodies with gunshot wounds and hands tied behind their backs have washed up in a river in Sudan that borders Ethiopia, the BBC broadcasted.
• The Telegraph released an extensive report about an alleged shelling and house-to-house killing by Tigrayan fighters in a small village in a small village of Amhara region, which The Telegraph says to have corroborated with satellite imagery. As per The Telegraph, the villages were razed to the ground after a lightly armed group of local farmers fired on Tigrayan positions in that area.
• Human Rights Watch produced a report on alleged human rights violations perpetrated against Tigrayans living in Addis Ababa. As per the report,  Ethiopian authorities since late June 2021 have arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, and committed other abuses against ethnic Tigrayans in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.
• On August 10, 2021, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued a call for all eligible civilians to join the armed forces “to halt the destruction of the treasonous and terrorist TPLF organization and the machinations of foreign hands once and for all” as fighting raged in multiple regions of the country. “Now is the right time for all capable Ethiopians who are of age to join the Defense Forces, Special Forces, and militias and show your patriotism,” the PM office said in a statement.
• On the other hand, Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) announced that they have formed a military alliance. The leader of OLA, an armed group that Ethiopia’s government has designated a terrorist organization, says his army has struck a military alliance with the Tigray Defense forces who are now pressing toward the capital.
• The United States government announced that Eritrean Defense Force (EDF) has been sanctioned as per the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned General Filipos Woldeyohannes (Filipos), the Chief of Staff of the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF), for being a leader or official of an entity that is engaged in serious human rights abuse committed during the ongoing conflict in Tigray.
• United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released a statement from the administrator, Samantha Power, on the humanitarian situation in Tigray. The statement dealt with the food situation in Tigray, “where hundreds of thousands are facing famine, food warehouses are virtually empty”.  “For the first time in nine months of conflict, aid workers will run out of food to distribute to the millions of people who are going hungry,” USAID says.
• In a related development, USAID Ethiopia said it has begun sending life-saving food to over 476,000 Ethiopians affected by conflict in Afar and Amhara regions.