A much-anticipated assessment of human rights violations and atrocities committed in the war in northern Ethiopia is likely to intensify concerns now centring on an increasingly intractable conflict.

The UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, used the phrase “extreme brutality” to describe horrifying incidents during the year-long war in the region of Tigray.

A joint report compiled by the UN and the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission stated “all the parties to the conflict in Tigray have… committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

However, the investigation will come as a major disappointment to those seeking a comprehensive account of mass-killings in places like the Tigrayan city of Axum, with investigators hampered by travel restrictions and a lack of cooperation and accountability from officials on both sides of the divide.

The report covers most of the year-long conflict, which began when fighters in the region of Tigray seized control of military bases belonging to Ethiopia’s National Defence Force.

In response, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray and invited paramilitaries from the neighbouring region of Amhara and soldiers from neighbouring Eritrea to assist.

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In a remarkable and unexpected turn of events, Tigrayan fighters forced Abiy’s coalition out of the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, in June and began their advance into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Drawing on 269 interviews, the joint report accuses all sides of torturing and killing civilians, of carrying out gang-rapes and targeting groups on the basis of their ethnicity.

Many accounts contained within the report detail rapes and mutilations at the hands of Eritrean soldiers.

“Some of the reported accounts of rape were characterised by appalling levels of brutality. Acts of rape were frequently intended to degrade and dehumanise an entire ethnic group,” said the report’s authors.

Eritrea refused to engage with human rights investigators but diplomatic officials have previously denied allegations of such conduct.

While this investigation has confirmed the catalogue of abuses committed during the conflict – violations which have been documented by a small number of media organisations like Sky News – it has failed to address the scale of such atrocities.

The report’s authors concede that 1,300 rapes reported to the authorities are likely to be a considerable underestimate.

The 100-page report was released one day after the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency and called on residents of the capital, Addis Ababa, to take up arms and defend their neighbourhoods.

TPLF forces have made a series of rapid advances in recent weeks and are now thought to be in partial or full control of the Amhara cities of Dessie and Kombolcha – the latter possessing a major airport.

Both communities are situated less than a day’s drive north of the capital.

For Abiy Ahmed, who claimed victory in this conflict 11 months ago, the TPLF’s military progress will come as a considerable setback.

The former intelligence officer tried to rally members of the public today, promising to bury the government’s enemies “with our blood”.

“The pit which is dug will be very deep, it will be where the enemy is buried, not where Ethiopia disintegrates,” he said in a speech at an event at the military’s headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Such comments will generate alarm internationally. Critics like the former New Zealand prime minister, Helen Clark, have accused the Ethiopian government of turning its back on global partners who have expressed concern.

Aid organisations like Oxfam have raised the alarm with some seven million in northern Ethiopia suffering from the combined effects of mass violence, human rights abuses, hunger and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UN was warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Tigray with approximately 400,000 people living in famine-like conditions. It is thought that the conflict has forced more than 2.5 million people from their homes.

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