
Since November, the situation in northern Ethiopia had deteriorated, the U.N. human rights chief said on Monday, adding that 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 Ethiopian government has always denied targeting civilians in the war between the federal forces and rebellious forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that began in November 2020.
Ethiopia’s envoy to the Human Rights Council, Mahlet Hailu Guadey, said Bachelet’s statement on Monday was at variance with the facts on the ground.
“Ethiopia abides by its national and international human rights obligations,” Mahlet added.
In the same speech, Bachelet said her office had received reports of 306 rapes by Tigrayan forces in the Amhara region in November-December 2021.
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said the reports were “blanket allegations”.
“Whatever the merits of such allegations though, we are open for independent investigation into these and other similar allegations,” he added.
Aid workers also claimed civilians have been killed in several air strikes.