According to a report by two major rights groups, the scale of the abuses in war-hit Ethiopia has been uncovered by government-aligned forces in western Tigray, detained thousands of ethnic Tigrayans, while torturing and killing many in a campaign of violence.
In the past few weeks, Tigrayans identified by local police in the Amhara region and ethnic militias called Fano have been routinely rounded up in house-to- house raids, with adults and teenagers over 15 detained in overcrowded prisons where scores are tortured and face starvation.
Women and younger children have been expelled from the three western Tigrayan towns targeted, while many have been killed and tortured, according to witnesses and survivors interviewed in a joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In three towns of Humera, Adebai and Rawyan, widespread abuse and alleged crimes against humanity have been reported in the region since the conflict began last November, when Ethiopia launched a military offensive that claimed it was against the Tigray People Liberation Front, which had previously ruled Ethiopia for 28 years.
The nature of the atrocities has only gradually emerged this year as a result of a communications blackout in Tigray by Ethiopia s government and restrictions on aid agencies, rights groups and observers, which have been widely condemned.
In November and December, interviews with 25 witnesses, survivors and relatives of victims revealed widespread abuse by Amhara militias and regional security forces against Tigrayan civilians in western Tigray, which has been occupied by Amhara authorities and where some of the most horrific atrocities have occurred.
In part, witnesses reported trucks filled with Tigrayans during roundups, which were corroborated by satellite imagery captured by researchers from Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
In some incidents, witnesses said residents who fled being taken were gunned down or attacked by operatives wielding machetes and axes.
They started shooting anyone in range running, said a 34-year-old farmer from Adebai who fled to a nearby field after an attack by Fano members. When the people tried to escape, the Fano attacked them with machetes and axes so no one could escape, he said, describing seeing several dead bodies after his escape. He said that everywhere you turned, there would be five, 10 bodies.
Many bodies remained unburied, so the whole town smelled and was filled with dead bodies, said another man who escaped attack.
Other witnesses reported roundups in the town of Rawyan on November 20. One driver who was kidnapped from a school told investigators that forces collected all Tigrayans at the school, said one driver.
Militia was beating the youth, 17- and 18-year-olds, searching for money and collecting their possessions. He said that the administrators gave instructions who can be released, and who can stay before he rounded Tigrayans into waiting trucks.
Since fighting began in November 2020, a number of atrocities have been committed by all parties of the conflict, including Tigrayan-led forces.
The most recent abuses appeared to have come amid recent victories by Tigrayan led forces that rebounded after several months of intense pressure, leading Ethiopia s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister Abiy Ahmed to join the conflict last month.
Fears of a rebel march on Addis Ababa in recent weeks has prompted countries including the UK to urge their citizens to leave Ethiopia as soon as possible, although Abiy s government has said the city is secure.
Regional Amhara security forces, ethnic militia groups such as Fano and even troops from neighbouring Eritrea have fought alongside Ethiopia's army. The conflict has opened historic regional and ethnic fault lines in Africa's second-most populous country.
The authorities initially denied that Eritrean forces were in Ethiopia until March this year, with the government response ranged from denials to coy admissions of the involvement of armed groups.
The report also highlights the fate of thousands of Tigrayans who are estimated to be held in Amharan prisons and detention centres.
A labourer arrested in July and held in a prison controlled by Amhara regional police, escaped in mid-November and described being kept in a 3 by 4 metre room with up to 200 people.
He described routine torture by Fanos against groups of detainees, by beating their hands, heads, chests, and genitals with sticks or the butt or muzzle of a rifle. They used electric wires and struck us on the soles of our feet for the ages of 12 to 30, he said. The older ones lay them down on their stomachs and hit them from their necks to their feet. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 1.2 million people had been displaced from western Tigray since the beginning of the conflict, with more than 10,000 Tigrayans displaced between 25 November and 1 December.
More than 2 million people have been displaced by the fighting in Tigray and hundreds of thousands are in famine-like conditions.