27 Feb 2021
Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region “killed hundreds of unarmed civilians” in the city of Axum in late November 2020, according to a report Amnesty International released Friday.
Describing the alleged attack on November 28-29 as a “systematic” killing, the human rights organization said Eritrean troops opened fire on the streets of Axum and conducted “house-to-house raids in a massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity.”
Amnesty International interviewed 41 survivors and witnesses of the attack who “consistently described extrajudicial executions, indiscriminate shelling, and widespread looting” during the two-day assault on the city.
Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by allied Eritrean troops, launched an offensive to seize control of Axum on November 19 as part of an ongoing military conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Addis Ababa. Ethiopian federal forces have been engaged in a mili