The Tigray conflict broke out in 2020 following a massive fall-out between the regional and federal governments, with neighbouring Eritrea entering the war on the side of the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF).
The conflict ended two years later following a peace deal brokered by the African Union (AU). Its envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, put the number of people who died in the conflict at around 600,000.
Researchers said the deaths were caused by fighting, starvation and a lack of health care.
MSF said the killing of its staff took place at a time when the conflict was intensifying, and Ethiopian and Eritrean troops were becoming increasingly hostile towards aid workers in the region.
The charity’s report includes what it says is evidence that a convoy of soldiers from the Ethiopian army, retreating from fighting, was present at the scene of the deaths, which, it adds, is corroborated by satellite imagery.
The report says both civilian and military eyewitnesses had come forward to directly implicate Ethiopian army soldiers in the killings, including one who allegedly heard a commander order an attack on the aid workers’ vehicle.
However, the charity says “the level and nature” of the army’s involvement in the attack “remains to be clarified”.
“The review found a large body of corroborating evidence that placed a convoy of retreating ENDF troops on the road where the killings took place on the day of the incident,” MSF said. BBC
