Africa-Press-Ethiopia<\/p>\n
NAIROBI (Reuters) \u2013 Three Ethiopian soldiers have been convicted of rape and one of killing a civilian in Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region, the government said on Friday, the first public statement that soldiers had been found guilty of crimes against civilians in the conflict.<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight more soldiers are on trial for killing civilians and 25 for acts of sexual violence and rape, the statement from the attorney general\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Awol Sultan, the spokesman for the attorney general\u2019s office, could not immediately be reached for comment for further details or whether the records would be made public. Neither could military spokesman General Mohammed Tessema.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s government has come under increasing pressure to demonstrate accountability as reports of atrocities in Tigray mount. The European Union has suspended budget support payments amid reports of brutal gang rapes, mass killings of civilians and widespread looting in the northern region.<\/p>\n
Conflict erupted more than six months ago between the federal government and the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that previously ruled Tigray. Days after fighting began, forces from the neighbouring Amhara region to the south and Eritrea to the north sent in troops to support Ethiopian soldiers.<\/p>\n
The U.N. has said that war crimes may have been committed by all parties to the conflict.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s military and federal prosecutors are also investigating other instances of alleged crimes, including in the city of Axum, the statement said. In February, Amnesty International said Eritrean troops killed hundreds of Tigrayan civilians there from Nov. 28-29 and described the incident as a potential crime against humanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe investigation indicates that a total of 110 civilians have been killed on these dates by Eritrean troops\u201d in Axum, the government statement said, including 40 who were killed in home raids.<\/p>\n
The statement differed sharply from a statement earlier this month on the Axum killings. On May 10, the attorney general\u2019s office said preliminary evidence indicated 93 people were killed and that the \u201cgreat majority\u201d were TPLF combatants out of uniform.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s statement, however, noted only that \u201csome of these individuals might have been irregular combatants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suspects in the ongoing Axum investigation will soon be identified, the statement said, without providing detail on the level of cooperation from the Eritrean military, whose troops stand accused of the killings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa-Press-Ethiopia NAIROBI (Reuters) \u2013 Three Ethiopian soldiers have been convicted of rape and one of killing a civilian in Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region, the government said on Friday, the first public statement that soldiers had been found guilty of crimes against civilians in the conflict. Twenty-eight more soldiers are on trial for killing civilians and 25 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[241,236,375],"class_list":["post-5028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press-ethiopia","tag-tigray","tag-tplf"],"yoast_head":"\n