The Tigray Criminals (TPLF) Commit Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes against Humanity against Afar People in the Afar Region of Ethiopia

 Afar Regional State (SAMARA)

 Press Release                Date: 05/02/2022               Ref: 001/ARP/22

The Afar UGUUGUMO is deeply outraged about the ongoing unprovoked invasion, wanton war of aggression, indiscriminate attacks, and disproportionate use of force with highly destructive weapons and high explosive bombs carried out by the Tigray Forces against Afar population in Zone 2 of the Afar Region. On December 20, 2021, the TPLF announced that their forces had withdrawn from the Afar and Amhara regions and had returned to their basis in Tigray. Since then, the TPLF has been carrying out indiscriminate and lethal attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Zone 2 of the Afar Region in the districts of Aba’ala, Magaale, Erebti, Barahle and Konnaba. This has resulted in horrific mass killings, severe suffering, widespread violations of human rights and displacement, and extensive destruction of homes, shops, mosques, schools, medical facilities, and the whole infrastructure. The Afar people in Zone 2 of Afar Region and the districts of Barahle and Konnaba are being subjected to systematic ethnic cleansing, genocide, and catastrophic cruelty by the Tigraian forces. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced and forced to flee, with no shelter, food, or water. Many of the most vulnerable children, the sick, and the elderly have already died while fleeing. The living conditions of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) are horrifying and catastrophic and their lives are in grave danger.

Presently, almost Zone 2 of the Afar Region is still under TPLF continuous bombardment. The Tigray Forces are engaging in pre-planned and organised ethnic cleansing and acts of aggression against Afar civilians in the districts of Barahle and Konnaba, and are forcing their way to Dalol. Many civilians were deliberately killed and injured, including children, women, and elderly, in a merciless and inhumane manner. The Ethiopia’s government is deafeningly silent, witnessing the crimes and doing nothing to prevent or stop the Tigray Force from carrying out genocide against Afar people. They speak of disarming the Amhara Fanos and Afars to insure the monopoly of violence of the state while it cannot protect its citizens. The Ethiopian government’s failure to protect Afar people has generated deep sadness, disappointment, anger, and confusion among the Afar people, not only in Ethiopia but also in neighbouring Eritrea and Djibouti, as well as among the Afar Diaspora worldwide. The Afar people have come to believe that the Ethiopian government is only concerned about the security and safety of the main highway that connects Addis Abeba to the Red Sea Ports and not with their existence, life, and security.

• The Afar UGUUGUMO callson all Afar People to defend themselves, their families, their properties, their land, their existence, their liberty and their Regional State against Tigray invaders. We shall fight the Tigray forces in every situation and at any time until we defeat them.

• We urgethe Ethiopian government to fulfil its constitutional obligations to protect the Afar people from possible large-scale ethnic cleansing. We also call on the government of Ethiopia to provide them with the military training and weapons they need to defend themselves.

• We urgeinternational journalists to visit the Afar Region in Ethiopia to see and report on serious human rights violations, mass executions, widespread displacement, and devastation of infrastructure committed by the TPLF.

• We appealto the international community, humanitarian relief organisations, and concerned individuals around the world to provide the most urgently needed lifesaving humanitarian aid for Afar population who have been displaced by the TPLF invasion by hundreds of thousands.

• We remindinternational humanitarian agencies that the siege that the TPLF is talking about is being carried out by its own forces, who have blocked the sole road linking Melele and Tigray via Afar Region. The TPLF leaders are solely responsible for the starvation of their own people.

Victory to the people of Afar!

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E.C of the Afar UGUUGUMO