International medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has released a report describing the gunning-down of three of its staff in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in 2021 as an “intentional and targeted killing” by members of Ethiopia’s military.
María Hernández Matas, a 35-year-old Spanish doctor, local colleague Yohannes Haleform Reda and driver Tedros Gebremariam were shot dead in June 2021, forcing the medical charity MSF to stop its services in Tigray despite the conflict.
The two years of fighting that ended in late 2022 between Tigrayans and the federal government and its allies left an estimated 600,000 people dead and an unknown number of others wounded.
All three employees worked for MSF-Spain. The medical charity said they and their vehicle were all clearly identified.
The new MSF report accuses the Ethiopian federal government of not following through on its promise to investigate and release its findings, despite pressure from the families of the deceased and the humanitarian organisation.
“The review confirmed that the attack was an intentional and targeted killing of three clearly identified aid workers,” MSF wrote in a statement published Tuesday.
The report says Ethiopian troops were on the road where the MSF staffers were killed, and some civilian witnesses overheard a radio exchange between a commander and his troops as he gave an order to shoot.
Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray
No ‘credible answers’
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Despite numerous follow-ups with the federal authorities in Addis Ababa, MSF said it had not received “any credible answers” and the government had “failed to fulfil its moral obligations to conclude an investigation into the attack”.
The report follows from an international investigation in 2022 when the NGO said the three aid workers had been killed “intentionally,” without providing further details.
In a separate 2022 investigation The New York Times claimed that an Ethiopian colonel had given the order to kill the three aid workers.
Raquel Ayora, director general of MSF-Spain, said: “We cannot confirm that or go that far.”
The report’s findings were presented to authorities, who did not respond, the NGO said.
The army and federal authorities have not responded to AFP’s inquiries either.
The 2020-2022 war pitted federal forces, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army, against Tigrayan rebels.
All of the warring parties have been accused of war crimes.
Killing of politician from Ethiopia’s Oromia region sparks fear of unrest
Ethiopia, the continent’s second most populous country with approximately 130 million inhabitants, has been led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since 2018.
Federal forces are also accused of abuses in Amhara and Oromia, which are in the grip of armed insurgencies.
(with newswires)
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
