03 – 07 – 2022
GENEVA, March 7 (Reuters) – The U.N. human rights chief said on Monday the situation in northern Ethiopia had deteriorated since November and her office had received reports of wide-spread violations including rapes and lethal air strikes.
Michelle Bachelet told the Geneva-based Human Rights Council her staff had recorded 304 deaths and injuries to 373 people in air attacks “apparently carried out by the Ethiopian Air Force” in Tigray and Afar regions.
The government has regularly denied targeting civilians in the 16-month-old war pitting Ethiopia’s federal forces against rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Ethiopia’s envoy to the Human Rights Council, Mahlet Hailu Guadey, dismissed Bachelet’s statement on Monday, saying it was at variance with the facts on the ground.