Three soldiers were convicted of rape, 28 of them were charged with homicide, and the other 25 were charged with rape and sexual assault.

The Ethiopian Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that the Ethiopian military prosecutor has convicted three soldiers for raping soldiers and charged another 28 suspected of killing civilians in the ongoing conflict in the northern Tigri state.

In addition, according to a statement on Friday, another 25 soldiers were charged with rape and other forms of sexual violence.

This The six-month-old Tigri conflict According to local authorities and aid organizations, this is the culprit responsible for thousands of deaths and atrocities, including rapes, extrajudicial executions and forced evictions.

The statement of the Attorney General’s Office also confirmed the report of two massacres in Tigri. According to the report, 229 civilians were killed in Mai Kadra in early November.

In addition, the Ethiopian government also accused the troops of neighboring Eritrea of ??killing civilians in the disaster-stricken area for the first time.

It stated that 110 civilians were killed by the “Eritrean army” in Aksum on November 27 and 28.

“The investigation revealed that 70 civilians were killed in the city. [of Axum] The report said, adding that some of the victims may have been “irregular combatants.”

The report said: “Forty civilians appear to have been taken from their homes by the Eritrean army and killed in raids between families.”

People mourned the victims of the massacre allegedly carried out by Eritrean soldiers in the village of Dengolat, north of the capital of Tigli [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]

In an early report on Axum, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty is also accused The Eritrean army fought in Tigri and said that the dead were mainly civilians.

Amnesty International said that the Eritreans “ran rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians with cold blood.”

‘Ethnic cleansing’

The Tigray conflict broke out in early November when Prime Minister Abiy sent troops to detain and disarm the leader of the ruling party in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) area.

Abi said that this move was in response to an attack on federal barracks by special forces.

Reports of the atrocities led U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to declare, “Ethnic cleansing” Occurs in the Sitigre area.

On Thursday, the US Senate passed a resolution condemning Tigri “all violence against civilians” and calling for the withdrawal of troops from neighboring Eritrea, which also sent troops to Tigri to support the Ethiopian government.

On Friday, some Ethiopians at home and abroad launched a “hands-on Ethiopia” social media campaign, urging foreign countries to stop “interfering in Ethiopian affairs.”

Abi came to power in 2018 and carried out extensive democratic reforms, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. He promised that the parliamentary elections to be held on June 21 will be free and fair. His Welfare Party must win a majority of seats in the Ethiopian parliament in order to continue as prime minister.

In addition to the Tigri conflict, the Abi government has also worked hard to contain Racial violence In several areas of Ethiopia.

The opposition Oromo Federalist Congress has promised to boycott the vote and stated that it has been harassed by the authorities. Last summer, the killing of an Oromo musician triggered a violent turmoil, and several of its leaders are still in prison.