Obviously, the war in Ukraine has been dominating headlines for quite a while now. Russia invaded in late February, but even the Russian military build-up along Ukraine's borders in the weeks before the actual invasion and war began. The news pouring out of Ukraine since then have been shocking and depressing, with millions of Ukrainians fleeing the country, whole cities being laid to waste, and more and more reports of the impact on civilians, including civilian casualties, seem to be leaking out of Ukraine on a daily basis.
However, there are other major conflicts in the world that are not getting the kinds of major headlines dominating western media like the Ukrainian conflict has done. The biggest example is the war in Yemen, which is being carried out by Saudi Arabia, using American weaponry.
The other is in Ethiopia, which has seen considerable instability in tragedy in recent decades. The nation was the site of a massive famine in the 80's. It also saw war, and lost territory in the war for Eritrean independence in the late 90's into the early 2000's, which saw Ethiopia become a landlocked country.
Now, a devastating civil war has broken out.
Military forces from Ethiopia's Amhara region have recently been accused of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Tigrayans. The war has already cost thousands of people their lives. Also, more than a million people have fled their homes.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a joint report that detailed allegations of war crimes and ethnic cleansing on the part of Amhara officials and regional special forces and militias in this war, particularly in the western region of Tigray. These, they are saying, amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. They also claim that the Ethiopian military has been complicit in those acts.
"Since November 2020, Amhara officials and security forces have engaged in a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing to force Tigrayans in western Tigray from their homes," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.
Ethiopia's government has claimed innocence, and declared that they would hold anyone guilty of war crimes to account. The government also suggested that the report itself might fuel ethnic tensions, and that it was generally unhelpful and may hinder peace efforts.
Rights groups accuse Ethiopian regional forces of ethnic cleansing in Tigray by Reuters, April 6, 2022:
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/rights-groups-accuse-ethiopian-regional-forces-ethnic-cleansing-tigray-2022-04-06/
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