Comments by head of PM Abiy Ahmed’s Tigray conflict task force represent an unusually stark assessment of conditions in the region, where the government asserts normalcy is returning.
A deadly fire started in an overcrowded detention centre last week when Houthi security forces reportedly fired projectiles into a locked hangar. Migrants have staged demonstrations demanding a probe into the incident.
Human Rights Watch says Eritrean troops shot dead "over 200 civilians" on November 28-29 alone, making Axum massacre in Tigray region one of the deadliest atrocities of the conflict so far.
Here's a look at the turmoil in Tigray as UN warns of possible "war crimes" and Security Council meets behind closed doors to discuss the embattled region.
"Serious violations of international law, possibly amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, may have been committed" in restive Tigray region, says UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
"We ask international partners, especially the African Union and regional partners, to work with us to address the crisis in Tigray, including through action at the UN and other relevant bodies," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Troops went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood, which appears to constitute crimes against humanity, Amnesty International says of the violence in northern Axum city.
Some 7,000 people, who fled two separate escalating conflicts in western Ethiopia, have been living among Sudanese host communities in dire conditions, says the UN refugee agency.
Concerns are growing over the fate of the Tigray region’s some six million people as fighting is reportedly as fierce as ever between Ethiopian and allied forces and those supporting the now-fugitive Tigray leaders.
A statement by Ethiopia's minister of Women, Children and Youth marks the first official acknowledgement of crimes activists say have been widespread.
Rape during conflict is not a new phenomenon. It's widespread and open use today, with zero accountability, should be a wake-up call for the international community to act.
Inter-ethnic violence in Metekel predates a brutal three-month-old conflict further north that is pitting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed against the former ruling party of Tigray.
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