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User:Matt Ndirangu/sandbox

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Northern Command attacks
Part of the Tigray War
Date3–4 November 2020[a]
Location
Northern Command HQ in Mekelle, Tigray Region, Ethiopia
Result

Inconclusive

  • Beginning of the Tigray War
  • Ethiopian federal government mobilizes troops against the TPLF
Belligerents

 Ethiopia

 Eritrea (claimed by TPLF)		 Tigray People's Liberation Front
Commanders and leaders
Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed Debretsion Gebremichael
Casualties and losses

32 killed, 9 wounded (claimed by ENDF sergeant)
"Hundreds" killed (claimed by Abiy Ahmed)

Thousands captured		 100 killed (claimed by ENDF sergeant)

The war in Tigray is had been an unseen sprawling conflict because the Ethiopian government had severed communications and locked out reporters from the region.[5] On 4th November 2020,[a] forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle[6] and bases in Adigrat,[3] Agula,[3] Dansha,[4] and Sero[1] in the Tigray Region, marking the beginning of the Tigray War.[6] The Ethiopian federal government stated that these attacks justified the ENDF's military action against the TPLF, which, at the time the attacks occurred, held control over the Tigray Region.[4][3] The TPLF described the action as "a pre-emptive strike."[7] The Ethiopian government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive strike on the troops of the autonomous state of Tigray. There have been numerous atrocities committed by the Ethiopian and Eritrean government against Ethiopian citizens living in the region of Tigray and the conflict has called for action in the international community to provide humanitarian efforts with incentives to save lives in the nothern region of Ethiopia. This war has been criticized by the members of the international community and the United Nations investigators in particular have been at the forefront criticizing the Ethiopian government for the violation of Jus Cogen and Jus in bello, and the violation of specific treaties signed regarding human rights during war.



Axum

Eritrean soldiers entered the small village, looted and burned crops from the villagers. They killed hundreds of civilians living here in a span of two days in late November in retaliation for an attack on their camp.[8] The Eritrean soldiers went door by door picking out unarmed men and killed them. It has been hard to identify the real number of victims because journalists have been restricted from accessing the area.

Mai Kadra

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In early November 2020, a massacre occured in the town of Mai Kara, where an estimated number of 600 civilians were killed. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission attributed the massacre to a Tigrayan youth group and local security forces, accusing them of targeting non-Tigrayan civilians.

Humera

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The town of Humera near the border of Eritrea and Sudan experienced heavy fighting in November 2020 resulting in a lot of non combatant casualties and the displacement of thousands.

Man-made Drought

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The region of Tigray that has been devastated by continuous fighting is now facing severe food emergency. The civilians living in the area are experiencing an extreme lack of food and now fall phase four emergency and phase five of the Famine Early Warning System Network classification[9] The Ethiopian government has imposed a restriction of food aid coming into the region of Tigray so the available help the civilians are supposed to get is inaccessible. The burning of crops in the region and destruction of farming equipment is an intentional starategy by the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces to create starvation.[9]

International Treaties Violated:

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  1. The Geneva Convention
  2. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  3. The Rome Statute
  4. The United Nations Charter
  5. Article 5 of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Crimes committed by the Ethiopian and Eritrean government:

  • Genocide- The Ethiopian and Eritrean forces have been accused of committing atrocities and ethnic cleansing to civilians in the Tigray region, killing hhundreds and discplacing even more in their military operations. Over 500,000 people have fled the region because of the ongoing conflict.[5] The genocide convention of 1948 defines genocide as; Killing members of a group, causing serious bodily harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole and imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group and forcefully transferring children of a group to another group.
  • Sexual assaults- There are about 26 million people being affected by this conflict and about three quarters are women and girls.[10] The Ethiopian and Eritream forces have been accused of sexual violence towards women of Tigray. By raping the women they are stopping them from giving birth to more Tigrayans; they have also turned the women into sex slaves by holding them in military camps.
  • Discriminatory starvation of its citizens in Tigray as a method of warfare. The Ethiopian and Eritrean tropps have been accused of blocking hunaitarian aid which has left over 5.2 million people in dire need of food aid.[5] This psychological method of wafare that intends to punish civilians in order to compel the Tigrayan leaders and the region into submission violates human rights on a large scale. The World Health Organization gives an estimate of 90% of the people living in Ethiopia needing food aid.[11]
  • Causing great suffering to the health of civilians by denying them medical services and supplies. Reports of patients dying from cancer, kidney disease and other treatable diseases in Tigray's largest hospital has been a growing concern as military troops continue to block medical aid coming into Tigray. This psychological method of warfare violates human rights because it puts innocent non combatant civilians at risk of death; this is also a violation of Jus In Bello. Hospitals in the region have been vandalised and looted and an estimate of 77% of the state's health facilities can no longer function and 13% have been damaged. [12]



  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference ThomReut_Sero4Nov2020_attack was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Ethiopia's central government launches offensive in Tigray region". CBC News. Reuters. 6 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference BBC_4Nov_2witnesses was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference France24_midnight_confrontation was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Walsh, Declan. "After Secret U.S. Talks Fail, a Hidden War in Africa Rapidly Escalates". New York Times.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Janes_11_12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Walsh, Declan (15 December 2021). "The Nobel Peace Prize That Paved the Way for War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
  8. ^ Anonymous, Anonymous (27 February 2021). "The War in Tigray". ProQuest.
  9. ^ a b "The war in Tigray: the makings of a man-made famine, and what can be done". Daily Maverick. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  10. ^ Maichuhie, Kamau (June,9 2022). "Ethiopia conflict taking a toll on women, girls". Nation Media group. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "War and Starvation- Ethiopia's Tigray conflict". The Real Story, on Spotify. November 2022.
  12. ^ Burki, Talha. Humanitarian crisis in Tigray amidst civil war. United States: Elsevier Ltd. pp. 774–775.


International Response.

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Some states have come to the support of Ethiopia including Eritrea, the former President Obasanjo of Nigeria at the time, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and China.[1]   United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor Nagy expressed "grave concern" about the attacks "by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, TPLF, on Ethiopian National Defense Force bases in the Tigray region".[2][3] The United Nations and The United States, the two leading hegemonies will be seen invoking international law and at the same time criticizing Ethiopia for the conflict in order to promote universality in the international community when it comes to the engagement of war. The two have been pushing for the end of the conflict in order to legitimize and maintain their status quo in the international community. Sudan has been actively providing asylum for ethnic Tigrayans while providing them with arms to defend themselves in the conflict

  1. ^ a b Some reports stated that the war began on 4 November;[1][2] however, the earliest instances of fighting are recorded as taking place during the very late hours of 3 November, EAT (UTC+03:00).[3][4]
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "We are deeply concerned by reports that the Tigray People's Liberation Front carried out attacks on Ethiopian National Defense Force bases in Ethiopia's Tigray region. We urge immediate action to restore the peace and de-escalate tensions". 4 November 2020.
  3. ^ "Briefing With Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Tibor P. Nagy and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael A. Raynor on the Situation in Ethiopia's Tigray Region". 19 November 2020.
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