Ethiopia

Country Profile

In November 2022, the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, ending active hostilities between them, which held throughout the year, although reports of abuses by Eritrean troops along the border and by militia groups persisted. In March the U.S. Secretary of State “determined that members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF), Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces, and Amhara forces committed war crimes – during the conflict in northern Ethiopia. Members of the ENDF, EDF, and Amhara forces also committed crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and persecution. Members of the Amhara forces also committed the crime against humanity of deportation or forcible transfer and committed ethnic cleansing in western Tigray.” In April the government disbanded regional special forces nationwide. The Amhara and Oromia regions experienced conflict between government forces and Fano militia and the Oromo Liberation Army, respectively. In August the government declared a state of emergency, under which there were widespread reports of violations by the government, including extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees; serious abuses in a conflict, including reportedly unlawful or widespread civilian deaths or harm, enforced disappearances or abductions, forcible transfers of civilian populations, torture, physical abuses, conflict-related sexual violence or punishment; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests of journalists, censorship, and the existence of criminal libel and slander laws; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations; serious government corruption; serious government restrictions on or harassment of domestic and international human rights organizations; extensive gender-based violence, including rape and sexual violence; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of racial or ethnic minority groups; and laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults, which were enforced.

The government took limited steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses. The government prosecuted some lower-level officers for abuses.

There were reports of widespread killings of civilians, mass forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, rape, and other forms of gender-based violence, looting, and destruction of property by Amhara militias and affiliated groups in western Tigray. There were also reports of widespread unlawful killings of civilians and government officials in Amhara and Oromia regions and elsewhere, including by the Oromo Liberation Army. Local militia groups in Afar, Oromia, and Somali regions reportedly carried out attacks and killings of civilians, displacing thousands.