“Purge from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood”
[Feb.20.2022] In Ethiopia, Tigrayan soldiers killed tens of civilians and gang-raped women and girls in the northern Amhara region, a human rights organization, International Amnesty has claimed on 16 February (local time).
Amnesty has found that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has committed atrocities in late August and early September last year around Chenna and Kobo. And there were 14 years-old girls among the gang-rape victims.
In Chenna, a village north of the Amhara regional capital Dahir Dar, fourteen of the 30 survivors interviewed by Amnesty International said that they were gang-raped by multiple Tigrayan soldiers. Seven are below 18. There was a case where a 14-year-old girl and her mother were both raped in their home.
27 witnesses and survivors told Amnesty International that TPFL fighters killed unarmed civilians in the town of Kobo, a village northeast of the Amhara region.
They were shot and killed in a summary manner, including being shot in the back of the head. “20 bodies were lying in their underwear and facing the fence and three more bodies in the school compound,“ they said.
Satellite imagery analysis by Amnesty International shows evidence of new burial sites at nearby churches compounds, as residents told.
The deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime and a crime against humanity.
It is reported that the Tigray troops also looted hospitals and other facilities. Amnesty International has urged the international community to immediately investigate and hold criminals accountable.
TPLF has not yet responded to this.
Amnesty International has documented acts of violence, including massacres, extrajudicial executions, sexual assaults, and arbitrary detention, of not only Tigray forces, but also Ethiopian government forces, militia, and Eritrean forces during the 15-month-long civil war in Tigray. (Source: Yeonhap News).
You will have purged from yourselves the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.(Deuteronomy 21:9)
Dear God, may You reveal the great and fearful LORD to the Ethiopian Tigray forces, who commit the crimes of raping, slaughtering, and shedding the blood of civilians, so that they may repent and act in righteousness. May You protect the lives of innocent who suffer because of them, comfort their families, and look after their lives. We pray for the churches of all nations to pray for this land where there are continuous violence and murders so that the civil war will end soon with the intervention of the international community and God’s amazing grace.
Prayer 24·365
prayer@prayer24365.org
