Ethiopia probes video showing soldiers killing Tigray boy

On December 6, 2021, a young man walks past a tank said to have belonged to the Tigray People's Liberation Front TPLF rebels near Debre Tabor. SOLAN KOLLI ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's state-appointed rights commission said on Monday it was investigating a video showing a group of fighters in Ethiopian army fatigues abusing and shooting a boy they accused of being from the embattled Tigray region.

The video, which has been shared on social media since Friday, showed a group of men in Ethiopian army combat fatigues stoning, taunting and kicking a boy with a bloodied face before shooting him in the stomach.

The Ethiopian army Reuters was unable to prove their identity independently, due to badges on the chests of several fighters.

Daniel Bekele, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission EHRC, told Reuters in a text message that they were trying to gather information on the distressing incident.

Neither the Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu nor military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane responded to requests for comment on the video.

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In March, the EHRC said all sides involved in the conflict in northern Ethiopia had committed human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, which may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The fighters accuse the boy of being from the town of Abiy Addi in central Tigray, a region whose forces have been fighting for the central government since November 2020.

Tigrayan leaders accuse Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of wanting to centralize power at the expense of the regions and accuses them of wanting to regain national power which they lost when he was appointed in 2018.

"Don't kill him, let him suffer," said one man, as another adds: He can't talk now, we were first supposed to get information from him. Another man said we should have buried him alive. One man hands a rock to throw at the boy's head, and later the men force bank notes into the boy's mouth as he lies bleeding from a head wound.

Reuters was not able to verify the time and location where the video was filmed or the actions it showed. READ MORE: WFP warns of the drought-induced humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia.

In March, the EHRC said soldiers and regional security forces had shot dead ten civilians - Tigrayans and ethnic Gumuz - after an attack on a military convoy left 53 people dead. The commission said some of the bodies were burnt and an eleventh Tigrayan man was thrown alive on the pyre.

The film of the flaming man trying to escape and be pushed back by uniformed security forces was posted on social media.

The government promised to punish those responsible but it is not clear if any action was taken.