Gelmo Dawit/VOA ADDIS ABABA - Aid workers and eyewitnesses are telling media an airstrike in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has killed more than 50 people. The Reuters news agency reports at least 30 others have been wounded after a camp for the internally displaced was hit Friday night. An airstrike in Ethiopia's Tigray region reportedly killed 56 people and injured at least 30, including children, in a camp for displaced people, aid workers told Reuters Saturday, citing eyewitnesses and local authorities. Ethiopian government officials have not confirmed the reported strike that hit an area of Dedebit town, near the border with Eritrea. Aid workers, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media, told Reuters the strike occurred Friday night. An aid worker said victims were brought to Shire Shul General Hospital, adding the camp was a residence for elderly women and children. The reported airstrike happened after the government released detained Tigray People’s Liberation Front senior leaders and other politicians Friday night in an attempt to curb the country’s crisis. Ethiopia’s government communications service announced the release of Sebhat Nega, one of the founders of the TPLF, Abay Woldu, a former head of the Tigray region, Jawar Mohammed, Eskindir Nega and others. Speaking to the state run news agency Saturday, Ethiopia’a minister for Justice, Gedewon Temotewos, said the individuals were released after the government dropped criminal charges against them. Their charges were dropped to facilitate the national dialogue set to happen soon, he said. As you know, the country has established a commission for national dialogue and releasing them will make the process more inclusive and valid, too. Ethiopia introduced the process of creating a national dialogue commission in December. Justice Minister Temotewos says the government wants every part of society in the country to take part in the process. In remarks Saturday, he revealed the government also has dropped charges against Debretsion Gebremichael, Tigray’s region head, and five other TPLF officials. But there is no confirmation whether the TPLF will be part of the upcoming national dialogue. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the decision to release detainees. He has called on the two parties to end hostilities and launch a credible and inclusive national dialogue. Tigray forces announced in December they were pulling out of parts of Ethiopia’s Amhara and Afar regions as part of a cease-fire agreement. In a letter addressed to the United Nations secretary-general at that time, Gebremichael set demands, which include establishment of a no-fly zone over Tigray’s airspace. Aid agencies told Reuters this week at least 146 people have been killed and 213 injured in airstrikes in Tigray since October 18. But the Ethiopian government denies targeting civilians during the 14-month conflict with Tigray forces. © VOA 2022

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Jan 8 (Reuters) - An estimated 200 people or more have been killed in villages in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara during deadly reprisal attacks by armed bandits following military air strikes on their hideouts this week, residents said on Saturday. Residents gained access to the villages on Saturday after the military captured the communities to organise mass burials, they told Reuters. The state government said 58 people had been killed during the attacks. Ummaru Makeri, a resident who lost his wife and three children during the attack, said around 154 people had been buried including several vigilantes who were killed. Residents said the total death toll was at least 200. Reuters reported on Friday that at least 30 people had been killed in the Anka local government area in Zamfara, when more than 300 armed bandits on motorbikes stormed eight villages and started shooting sporadically on Tuesday. read more The military said it had conducted air strikes in the early hours of Monday on targets in the Gusami forest and west Tsamre village in Zamfara state, killing more than 100 bandits including two of their leaders, following intelligence reports. One resident who declined to be identified told Reuters the attacks on the villages could be linked to the military strikes. There have been a series of attacks in northwest Nigeria, which has seen a sharp rise in mass abductions and other violent crimes since late 2020 as the government struggles to maintain law and order. In a separate incident, 30 students abducted from their college in the northwestern Nigerian state of Kebbi were freed on Saturday, a spokesman for the Kebbi governor said, without providing details. President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement on Saturday the military had acquired more equipment to track down and eliminate criminal gangs that have been subjecting people to a reign of terror, including through the illegal imposition of taxes on communities under siege. "The latest attacks on innocent people by the bandits is an act of desperation by mass murderers, now under relentless pressure from our military forces," Buhari said. Buhari added that the government would not relent in its military operations to get rid of the bandits. Reporting by Maiduguri newsroom; Additional reporting by Camillus Eboh and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by David Holmes and Paul Simao © Reuters 2022

01/08/2021 By Nathaniel Hill Unidentified military personnel fire their weapons in the center of Almaty on January 6. In video of this scene, the man at right appears to be signaling to stop shooting after a sustained burst of gunfire from the formation Image Source Genocide Watch is issuing a Genocide Emergency Alert for the crisis in Kazakhstan. For a comprehensive overview of Kazakhstan’s history please view the Kazakhstan Country Report. On January 2, 2022, large crowds gathered to protest a dramatic increase in the price of government subsidized petroleum gas. Tens of thousands more soon came out across Kazakhstan, protesting not only the near doubling of gas prices, but also decades of autocratic rule and government corruption. The Kazakh military, police and government led by President Qasym Zhomart Toqeav, responded to these protests with shocking brutality. After initially authorizing only use of tear gas and plastic batons, President Toqaev then issued a “shoot to kill” order against any protesters in the streets. As of January 7, 2022, security forces have killed dozens of people. Eighteen security officers are also reported dead. Police and soldiers have shot live bullets into crowds of protestors. Thousands more have been injured or detained. At the request of Toqaev, a Russian-led “peacebuilding” force has intervened, with additional support and soldiers coming from Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Toqaev refers to the civilian protestors as “foreign-trained terrorists,” “bandits,” and “criminal gangs.” The head of the Kazakh National Police has called for the “liquidation” of protestors. Such dehumanizing, polarizing, and violent language is a warning sign of impending massacres. Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has been ruled by the corrupt and authoritarian Nazarbayev regime. Toqaev is Nazarbayev's hand-picked successor. Arbitrary arrest, torture, and murder are frequently used to crush any dissent. In 2011, for example, sixteen striking workers in the oil town of Zhanaozen were murdered by the Kazakh police. China, Russia, the United States, and European Union maintain heavy investments in Kazakhstan’s energy resources. They all benefit from the status quo and are reluctant to support human rights and popular democratization efforts in Kazakhstan. Due to the Kazakh government's use of dehumanizing language and use of lethal force against protesters, as well as the introduction of Russian-led troops, Genocide Watch considers Kazakhstan to be at Stage 4: Dehumanization, Stage 7: Preparation, and Stage 8: Persecution. Genocide Watch Recommends: 1. The United States and European Union should immediately embargo imports of Kazakh gas and oil, and condition resumption of imports on the end of violent Kazakh government suppression of protests. 2. Resumption of US and European oil and gas imports should also be conditioned on withdrawal of the Russian-led “peacebuilding” force from Kazakhstan.

The International Criminal Court will investigate the killings of thousands under President Rodrigo Duterte. by Jason Guiterrez, The New York Times MANILA — A lawyer for President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday that International Criminal Court representatives would be denied entry to the Philippines, a day after the Hague-based tribunal authorized a full investigation into Mr. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. A three-judge panel at the court said on Wednesday that the antidrug campaign, which has left thousands dead, appeared to have been “a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population.” It based that assessment on evidence presented by prosecutors, who have been carrying out a preliminary investigation since 2018. Salvador Panelo, a lawyer for Mr. Duterte, reiterated on Thursday the president’s stance that the court had no authority to investigate him. Mr. Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the treaty that established the tribunal after it began its preliminary investigation. “They will violate our rights if they persist with the investigation, because that would mean meddling in the domestic affairs of our country,” said Mr. Panelo, who added that the Philippine justice system was adequately dealing with any crimes committed during the drug war. “The country will not allow anyone from the I.C.C. to come in and gather information and evidence here in the Philippines,” Mr. Panelo said. “They will be barred entry.” The national police say their officers have killed at least 8,000 people suspected to have been drug dealers or addicts since Mr. Duterte took office in 2016, after running for president on a promise to fill Manila Bay with the bodies of narcotics traffickers. But Philippine rights groups, who welcomed the court’s announcement, say that even that number vastly understates the drug war’s true toll, and that thousands more have been slain by pro-government vigilantes. “Many of the killings were done in police operations, but even so-called vigilante killings were part of the war on drugs,” said Llore Pasco, who became an activist after two of her sons were killed by the police in 2017. “There was no due process and no respect for human rights.” The I.C.C. said it would also investigate killings that took place in the city of Davao when Mr. Duterte was its mayor, before he became president. He has been accused of running a death squad there that eliminated political rivals as well as suspected drug dealers and addicts. The court’s investigation will cover the period from November 2011 to March 2019, when the Philippines formally withdrew from the I.C.C. treaty. In a statement, the court said that “based on the facts as they emerge at the present stage and subject to proper investigation and further analysis, the so-called ‘war on drugs’ campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation. “Rather, the available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy,” it said. Ms. Pasco, the activist, had two sons, one 33 and the other 32, who were killed by the police in Quezon City, a Manila suburb, in May 2017. She said they had used drugs in the past, but had given them up; the police said they were part of a robbery gang, which she denies. She said the court’s announcement was “like the sun shining on us now, brightly.” Another grieving mother turned activist, Normita Lopez, lost her 23-year-old son, Djastin Lopez, in a police shooting the same year. “Nothing is going to bring back Djastin, but we can help to make sure that no one is killed anymore,” she said. Mr. Duterte has repeatedly said that he would never be tried by the international court. He once said that Fatou Bensouda, then a prosecutor for the tribunal, would be arrested if she came to the Philippines. Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, who controls the national police, said on Thursday that they were prepared to assist with an I.C.C. investigation, but he added that “this is a policy matter where only the president has the authority to decide whether to allow a nonlocal inquiry or not.” “Hence, we shall abide by the guidance of the president,” Mr. Año said. Mr. Duterte’s six-year term ends next year, and under the Philippines’ Constitution he cannot run for a second. But he hopes to run for the vice presidency in conjunction with a political ally, who, if he won the presidency, would be in a position to shield Mr. Duterte from the tribunal. Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, which provides legal assistance to people who lost family members in the drug war, said that time was running out for Mr. Duterte, but that the killings were continuing. On Wednesday night, even as the news from the Hague court was reaching the Philippines, a lawyer in Mr. Olalia’s organization, Juan Macababbad, was gunned down in the southern city of Cotabato by unknown people, he said. “It was July 4, 2016, when we first publicly called out against the madness of the extrajudicial killings in the bloody drug campaign against the poor,” Mr. Olalia said. “Now the I.C.C. has opened the doors for a new beginning — it has been a long and torturous journey so far.” “It is all worth it,” he said. “It will be worth it.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

Saudi Arabia Should Stop Deporting Tigrayan Migrants to Ethiopia Ethiopian migrants returned from Saudi Arabia arrive at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on July 7, 2021. © 2021 Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Ethiopian authorities have arbitrarily detained, mistreated, and forcibly disappeared thousands of ethnic Tigrayans recently deported from Saudi Arabia, Human Rights Watch said today. Saudi Arabia should stop holding Tigrayans in abhorrent conditions and deporting them to Ethiopia, and instead help the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide them with international protection. Ethiopian authorities have transferred Tigrayan deportees from Saudi Arabia to reception centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, where some were being unlawfully held. The Ethiopian authorities have also apprehended Tigrayan deportees at checkpoints on the roads to Tigray or at the Semera airport in the Afar region and transferred them to detention facilities in Afar or southern Ethiopia. “Tigrayan migrants who have experienced horrific abuse in Saudi custody are being locked up in detention facilities upon returning to Ethiopia,” said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi Arabia should offer protection to Tigrayans at risk, while Ethiopia should release all arbitrarily detained Tigrayan deportees.” Various factors, including unemployment and other economic difficulties, drought, and human rights abuses, have driven hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians to migrate over the past decade, traveling by boat across the Red Sea and then by land through Yemen to Saudi Arabia. In January 2021, the Ethiopian government announced it would cooperate in the repatriation of 40,000 of its nationals detained in Saudi Arabia, beginning with a 1,000 a week. Forty percent of the returnees from Saudi Arabia between November 2020 and June 2021 were Tigrayan. Deportations increased significantly between late June and mid-July, with over 30,000 reportedly deported. The surge in repatriations coincided with an increase in profiling, arbitrary detentions, and forcible disappearances of Tigrayans by Ethiopian authorities in Addis Ababa following the withdrawal of Ethiopian federal forces from the Tigray region and an expansion of the Tigray conflict. Human Rights Watched interviewed 23 Tigrayans – 20 men and 3 women – who were deported from Saudi Arabia between December 2020 and September 2021, with the majority deported between June and August 2021, and subsequently detained in Ethiopia between April and September. Deportees were held in facilities throughout Ethiopia: in centers in Addis Ababa; in Semera, Afar region; in Shone, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region; and in Jimma, Oromia region. Human Rights Watch sent letters with queries to the Ethiopian National Disaster Risk Management Commission, the Federal Police Commission, the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, DC, the Saudi Arabian Human Rights Council, and the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Interior, but has received no responses. Map showing the different locations where Tigrayan deportees are being detained in Ethiopia. Graphic: © 2021 Human Rights Watch As Ethiopian authorities conducted mass sweeps and arrests of Tigrayans in Addis Ababa in July, some deportees interviewed said that after initially being allowed freedom of movement in the Addis centers they were not permitted to leave. Other deportees who tried to make their way home to Tigray were apprehended and forcibly disappeared at regional detention facilities where Federal and Afar regional police assaulted them or beat other Tigrayan deportees with rubber or wooden rods. Deportees said that conditions became progressively more restrictive and abusive. In the Semera center in mid-September, a new Afar security force, wearing gray and black uniforms, arrived and beat deportees, purportedly because detainees spent too much time in the toilets. “Two days ago, they [Afar special police] came and beat many of us,” said a 23-year-old deportee. “I am injured, and my leg and head are swollen. They beat us severely. They said, ‘You belong to the TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front].’” Most interviewees said they were unable to speak with family members to let them know where they were, and some believed their relatives still thought they were in Saudi Arabia. All said the federal police failed to provide any legal justification for their arrest and subsequent detention. The interviewees said that before Saudi Arabia deported them, they spent from six months to six years in formal and informal detention facilities across Saudi Arabia, including in Abha, Hadda, Jizan, and Jeddah. They experienced beatings and overcrowding, and uniformly described terrible sanitation and inadequate bedding, food, water, and medical care. Deplorable detention conditions for migrants in Saudi Arabia is a longstanding problem. They were permitted no time outside and suffered serious skin problems from the unhygienic conditions. All said that prison guards beat them or other detainees with plastic or rubber-coated metal rods, including if they complained about conditions. They said guards would remove them from their cells, force them to strip naked, and stand or kneel as they were beaten. Nearly all interviewees said that Saudi authorities had arrested and detained them because of their irregular immigration status, but that the authorities never provided legal justifications for their detention nor allowed them to get a lawyer or challenge their detention. Prolonged detention without access to judicial review is considered arbitrary and violates international law. The Ethiopian authorities’ detention of thousands of Tigrayan deportees from Saudi Arabia without informing their families of their arrest or whereabouts amounts to enforced disappearance, which also violates international law. The authorities should immediately account for all Tigrayans in custody and release all those who have not been credibly charged with a crime. All those detained should have immediate access to legal counsel and their families. Saudi Arabia should halt the deportation of all Tigrayans to Ethiopia because of the risk they face of persecution. Customary international law prohibits sending people to a country where they face a real risk of persecution or torture. Saudi Arabia should provide UNHCR with full and unfettered access to detained migrants to assess any claim for refugee status and work with UNHCR to facilitate the resettlement of Tigrayan refugees. “Ethiopian authorities are persecuting Tigrayans deported from Saudi Arabia by wrongfully detaining and forcibly disappearing them,” Hardman said. “Saudi Arabia should stop contributing to this abuse by ending the forced return of Tigrayans to Ethiopia and allowing them to seek asylum or resettlement in third countries.” Ethiopian Conflict In November 2020, an armed conflict started between the Ethiopian federal government and its allied forces against forces affiliated with the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Since then, rights groups and the media have documented numerous abuses, including large-scale massacres, indiscriminate attacks, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, forcible expulsions, pillage, destruction of civilian property, and blocking of humanitarian relief. On November 4, Ethiopia’s parliament passed a six-month nationwide state of emergency, which grants the government far-reaching authority to arrest and detain people based on “reasonable suspicion” of cooperation with “terrorist groups” without a court warrant or judicial oversight. In May, Ethiopia’s parliament had designated the TPLF as a terrorist group. Saudi Arabia Detention of Ethiopian Migrants Official Saudi statistics indicate that over 6.3 million migrants are formally working in the private sector in Saudi Arabia, especially in energy and service jobs. Saudi Arabia has carried out regular sweeps of undocumented migrant workers, including major arrest campaigns beginning in November 2013 and August 2017. The Interior Ministry indicated that between August 12 and December 8, 2021, the authorities detained over 265,000 people in violation of residency, labor, and border security laws. Human Rights Watch in 2019 identified approximately 10 prisons and detention centers in Saudi Arabia in which migrants were held for various periods in overcrowded, unsanitary, and abusive conditions. In August 2020, three detention centers were identified in Jizan and Jeddah provinces where thousands of Ethiopian migrants were being held in abysmal conditions after being expelled from northern Yemen the previous April. In December 2020, Human Rights Watch identified a deportation center in Riyadh holding hundreds of migrant workers in degrading conditions, most of them Ethiopians. Tigrayan deportees interviewed uniformly described horrendous conditions in formal and informal detention centers in the Saudi Arabian cities of Abha, Hadda, Jizan, and Jeddah. All said the Saudi authorities kept them in cramped, unsanitary rooms with hundreds of other migrants for months and years on end. Most said they had been detained for over a year. They did not have enough room to all lie down at the same time, so some slept during the day and others at night. All said either that guards had assaulted them or that they had witnessed guards beating other detainees. For security reasons, all names are pseudonyms. Kaleb, a 24-year-old Tigrayan, traveled to Saudi Arabia from Ethiopia using smugglers in April 2019 in search of job opportunities. A year after he arrived, Saudi security forces in Riyadh arrested him in a house raid and detained him for more than a year. He said that the detention center “was a difficult place”: So many people suffered. They [prison guards] turned on an air conditioning unit that released very cold air until we were freezing and suffered. Then when we started screaming so the guards would turn it off, it got hot again. The guards would entertain themselves by doing this. We tried to convince the guards to stop this, but they didn’t. He said there were 300 people in the cell and so all could not sleep at the same time but slept in turns: “We slept under a flooding toilet. Some of the toilets were broken and would leak to where we slept.” He also described the abuse by the guards: The beating was an everyday thing. One day, the guards beat me with a rubber stick so severely. I was being transferred to another room. There was no reason, it was just because I was standing at the front of the line. The result is that my body was swollen. After 14 months in the Riyadh detention center, Kaleb was transferred to Shmeisei deportation center in Jeddah. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, Enforced Disappearance in Ethiopia Addis Ababa Centers The Tigrayan deportees interviewed said that once they arrived at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport from Saudi Arabia, Ethiopian federal police and representatives from humanitarian organizations met them and transported them by bus to government-run centers in Addis Ababa. At the centers deportees have access to food, water, toilets, and showers, and are given 1,000 to 2,000 birr (US$20 to $40) and a place to stay in the centers for one to two nights, though they are not always allowed to leave after this initial stay. The government operates at least eight centers housing Tigrayan deportees in various Addis Ababa neighborhoods. Human Rights Watch spoke with deportees who said that an estimated 1,000 deportees are in Shiro Meda, 400 in Wosen, and up to 800 in Megenagna at any one time. Several said the federal police at the Addis reception center told them that they could not leave the center unless they had a relative in the capital who could collect them, though some were allowed to leave after a few days. It is unclear why others were only permitted to leave if they had a relative to sponsor them. The federal police moved several interviewees without a sponsor to another government center in the Shiro Meda area. While men and women were initially held together but in separate rooms at Shiro Meda, as of mid-September, the authorities had transferred about 400 women to a facility in Wosen on the outskirts of Addis. Two deportees said that on November 21 federal police entered the Shiro Meda center at midnight and took at least 150 young male deportees by bus to Jimma in the Oromia region to a rudimentary detention facility, where they were forced to work by “local militia,” wearing dark green uniforms, in the nearby coffee farms for up to seven hours a day without pay. Tekle, 27, described the conditions in Jimma: They [local militia] warned us not to speak Tigrinya in this area. We are being forced to work in the coffee farms all day without food. When we get back to the shelter, they lock us in and we are only given boiled maize to eat. We sleep in a simple house, we sleep on the floor, with no blanket, no mattress. There are insects on the floor that bite us. Semera and Shone Detention Facilities In July, the Tigray conflict expanded into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, with an escalation of fighting in the Afar region in late July and August leading to large-scale displacement in the region. Fourteen Tigrayan returnees said that between April and August they were allowed to leave the Addis reception center and tried to return to Tigray either by flying to Semera airport in Afar region, or by bus. Many cited the arrests and disappearances of Tigrayans in Addis as a reason why they wanted to leave the capital. Federal and Afar police together or separately intercepted them at Semera airport or at six checkpoints in the Afar region. They said the police held them at the checkpoint or at makeshift detention sites for one to three days, then forced them onto buses and transported them to detention facilities in Semera or to Shone in southern Ethiopia. Several said they were held without food and with limited water. Berhe, a 34-year-old Tigrayan deported from Saudi Arabia in July, spent two days at a center in Addis and then tried to travel home to Tigray: At a checkpoint near Logiya [Afar region], the federal police stopped the bus. They got into the bus, checked our identity documents [laisser passer provided by the Ethiopian embassy in Saudi Arabia]… and took our mobile phones. We stayed in the checkpoint for three days and three nights. In the bus for all that time. The checkpoint is far out of town. We had no food or water. On the fourth day we were taken to Awash [Afar region]. …We didn’t know where we were going and we couldn’t contact our families. He spent another night in the bus at a checkpoint in Awash before being taken to a detention facility in Shone, where he remained five months later. Trhas, a 33-year-old Tigrayan woman who was deported from Saudi Arabia in December 2020, said that federal police stopped her at a checkpoint at Awash Sebat, Afar region, in April, put her in a bus, and took her to a “military camp” near the checkpoint where she was held with up to 700 other Tigrayan deportees. After two days they took her to Shone. She said: It took us one day to travel to the South [to Shone]. We spent another night in the bus. There was no food or water, it was a very difficult two days. We asked the federal police for food and water and the toilet, but we were beaten if we left our seats. They said, “Bandits don’t need food.” The police stopped the bus in some towns to buy food and drinks for themselves. When this happened, the male passengers left their seats, and the police beat them using something like a wire in their hands. Hagos, a 24-year-old Tigrayan deported from Saudi Arabia in June, traveled by plane to Semera directly after his arrival at the Addis reception center. He said: The [federal] police stopped us at the airport in Semera and checked our mobile phones to see what photos we had. If they found a Tigrayan flag or anything related to the [Tigray] situation they would keep the mobile phone. We [Tigrayan deportees] were collected in one corner. They said we couldn’t travel to Tigray; it was not safe. We were taken to a big compound in Semera. There were a lot of people already there. Everyone was Tigrayan and the majority were deportees from Saudi Arabia. Some were also from Addis, people who had been detained in Addis and taken there. Hagos spent a rainy night in the open courtyard of a compound. “We were soaked by the rain,” he said. The police then took him and others to Shone. They asked the police to release them before they arrived in Shone: “We said, ‘Even if there is a war in Tigray, we want to go.’ They said, ‘No.’” Mistreatment in Addis Centers and Regional Detention Facilities Tigrayan deportees sent to centers in Addis generally had greater freedom of movement than in the regional facilities, which served as detention centers. In Megenagna in Addis, deportees interviewed said they could leave, but chose not to for fear of being arrested on the streets. Habtom, 35, said, “We are allowed to go out, but we do not because we are scared we will be arrested. We will stay [in the center] until we are forced to leave.” Deportees in Shiro Meda said they needed permission from the federal police to leave, and those in Wosen, a facility for women, said they needed sponsorship from a relative. The Shone and Semera detention centers had much harsher conditions. Deportees in Semera said the Afar police who ran the facility only allowed them to leave their rooms for 30 minutes in the morning and late afternoon for water and to use the toilet. Daniel, 40, who was deported from Saudi Arabia in August, described the Semera facility: It looks like a warehouse built with concrete hollow blocks. Inside there are no mattresses and we sleep on the floor. It is a big compound with a long fence, guarded by many [Afar] police. We are not allowed to leave. We can only walk inside the compound where we stay all night. There are women and children here too, we are really suffering. Except for 6 to 10 people who are from Semera [town], we are more than 800 deportees from Saudi Arabia. Deportees in Shone could only leave their rooms for limited periods for food, water, and the toilet, but for longer periods than in Semera. The deportees in Shone, Semera, and Shiro Meda said that federal or Afar police had assaulted them in detention or that they had witnessed police officers beating other Tigrayan deportees with rubber or wooden rods. Daniel said that federal police intercepted him at the Semera airport on his way to Tigray and took him to the Semera detention facility. There, Afar police beat detainees, effectively accused them of being Tigrayan fighters by referring to them as “junta,” a term the Ethiopian government has used for the TPLF. He said: “There are beatings, it is even worse than Saudi Arabia. The police beat us, abuse us, and insult us. … I was beaten. They beat us with rubber sticks that they carry with them. Sometimes they beat us with wooden sticks. Every day, it is normal.” Goitom, 22, was intercepted in Awash Sebat in Afar, after being deported from Saudi Arabia in August, and taken to the Shone detention facility. He said the federal police ran the center: There are beatings…Almost every day there is a beating, some because there is a disturbance. When the federal police want to lock down the facility and people go to the toilet at the last minute, they are beaten. There is no serious injury, but people are beaten. Different police use different things to beat people. Some use their hands or military boots. In early November, the federal government passed a broad state of emergency. Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans were again swept up in mass, arbitrary arrests in Addis Ababa. On November 21 at about midnight, seven armed federal police officers entered the Shiro Meda facility in Addis Ababa and picked up 100 Tigrayan deportees, all young men. The police forced them to walk to a nearby police station. A witness said that the police caught several men who tried to escape during the forced walk and beat them. The men spent the night outside in the cold. The next morning, the police forced them to board three buses and drove them to Jimma, in southwest Ethiopia. Andom, a 32-year-old man now at Jimma, said he and the other 150 deportees were being forced by “local militia leaders” to work on the coffee farms, a half hour walk from the rudimentary detention facility where they were held. Andom said: We work six to seven hours every day. We have to pick a minimum of one kilo of coffee beans per day. We have to work hard and cover a large area to pick enough coffee beans. We don’t get water while we work. There are three people who are sick now because of this. Detention Facility Locations Based on satellite imagery, videos, and witness accounts, Human Rights Watch identified two facilities – in the towns of Semera and Shone – that are most likely used to detain Tigrayan deportees. Semera, Afar Region Human Rights Watch analysis determined that a likely detention facility for Tigrayans is located at a compound less than two kilometers north of the Semera airport. Interviewees said that they were being held in a location next to the only church in Semera, near what they believed was a military compound. A video posted on Facebook on August 21, filmed from inside a walled compound, shows what appears to be five people being forced to roll across the ground. Human Rights Watch identified the likely location of the compound by matching the landmarks visible in the video with satellite imagery but could not confirm the date the video was recorded. A review of historical satellite imagery of the site confirms that the compound was built in early April 2021, leading Human Rights Watch to narrow down the date to sometime between early April and August 21, when the video was posted online. On October 7, rows of military vehicles inside what looks like a military compound are visible on satellite imagery, dozens of meters from the possible detention center. As described by interviewees, Human Rights Watch identified a church next to a compound in the town of Semera, Afar region. A video posted on Facebook on August 21, 2021 depicting apparent mistreatment of people matches interviewee accounts of the likely location of a detention facility. Right: Satellite imagery taken 7 October 2021 © 2021 Planet Labs Inc. Left: Image stills taken from a video widely shared online recorded by an unknown person. Shone, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region Human Rights Watch, analyzing satellite imagery and witness accounts, identified the likely detention facility as Shone Agricultural College at Wachamo University in Shone. The layout and features are consistent with descriptions from interviewees. Based on interviews, Human Rights Watch identified this location in Shone Agricultural College of Wachamo University as the likely facility used to detain Tigrayan deportees in Shone town, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. The annotated graphic corroborates descriptions given during interviews with landmarks visible in satellite imagery. Satellite imagery: 20 October 2021. © 2021 CNES / Airbus. Source: Google Earth Recommendations To the Ethiopian Government Immediately inform families of Tigrayan and other detainees of their relatives’ whereabouts, and permit access to detainees by lawyers and family members. Promptly and unconditionally release Tigrayan and other detainees who have not been charged with a recognizable criminal offense. End the ethnic profiling of Tigrayans, including the routine detention of arriving Tigrayans deported from Saudi Arabia. Ensure that all official reception centers and detention facilities meet international standards; shut all informal detention facilities. Impartially investigate and discipline or prosecute as appropriate all officials implicated in mistreating detainees. End the use of Tigrayan deportees for forced labor and release everyone detained for that purpose. To the Saudi Government Use migration detention only as an exceptional measure of last resort; release detainees who have not been brought promptly before a judge to determine the legal basis or necessity for their detention. Ensure that migrant detention and deportation centers meet international standards. Impartially investigate and discipline or prosecute as appropriate all officials implicated in mistreating detainees. Stop deporting Tigrayans to Ethiopia because of the real risk of persecution they face. Ensure UNHCR has full access to assess anyone claiming refugee status. Facilitate the resettlement of refugees identified by UNHCR as needing resettlement. To Concerned Governments Increase resettlement places for Tigrayan refugees in Saudi Arabia. Expand complementary pathways for Tigrayans detained in Saudi Arabia to leave in safety and dignity. © 2022 Human Rights Watch

The scorched-earth tactics — such as the razing of entire villages — represent the latest escalation in the military’s violence against both civilians and the growing opposition. When the young farmhand returned to his village in Myanmar, he found the still smoldering corpses in a circle in a burned-out hut, some with their limbs tied. The Myanmar military had stormed Done Taw at 11 a.m. on Dec. 7, he told the Associated Press, with about 50 soldiers hunting people on foot, killing 10 people including five teenagers. A photo taken by his friend shows the charred remains of a victim lying face down, holding his head up, suggesting he was burned alive. “I am very upset, it is unacceptable,” said the 19-year-old, who like others interviewed by the AP asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Myanmar refugees who have fled from violence in Chin state, northwestern Myanmar, watch photos and videos of the violence at an undisclosed location, in India, on Dec. 13. Manish Swarup / AP The carnage at Done Taw is just one of the most recent signs that the Myanmar military is reverting to a strategy of massacres as a weapon of war, according to an Associated Press investigation based on interviews with 40 witnesses, social media, satellite imagery and data on deaths. The massacres and scorched-earth tactics — such as the razing of entire villages — represent the latest escalation in the military’s violence against both civilians and the growing opposition. Since the military seized power in February, it has cracked down ever more brutally, abducting young men and boys, killing health care workers and torturing prisoners. A burned structure with household goods is marked out near where bodies were found burned outside Taung Pauk village in the northwestern Sagaing region of Myanmar in July. Myanmar Witness / via AP They also signal a return to practices that the military has long used against ethnic minorities such as the Muslim Rohingya, thousands of whom were killed in 2017. The military is accused of killing at least 35 people on Christmas Eve in the village of Mo So, an ethnic Karenni region. But this time, the military is also using the same methods against people and villages of its own Buddhist Bamar ethnic majority. The focus of most of the latest killings has been in the northwest, including in a Bamar heartland where support for the opposition is strong. More than 80 people have died in killings of three or more in the Sagaing region alone, including those in Done Taw, since August, according to data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP, a group that monitors verified arrests and deaths in Myanmar. NBC News has not been able to verify this data. The military is also reprising a hallmark tactic of destroying entire villages where there may be support for the opposition. Satellite imagery the AP obtained from Maxar Technologies shows that more than 580 buildings have been burned in the northwestern town of Thantlang alone since September. NBC News has not been able to verify these images. This combination of two satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies shows a comparison view of Jan. 6, 2018, left, and Nov. 12, 2021, right, before and after of the fires that recently burned numerous homes and structures in the town of Thantlang, Myanmar. Maxar Technologies / via AP “There are similar cases taking place across the country at this point, especially in the northwest of Myanmar,” Kyaw Moe Tun, who refused to leave his position as Myanmar’s United Nations envoy after the military seized power, told the AP. “Look at the pattern, look at the way it’s happened….it is systematic and widespread.” The military, known as the Tatmadaw, did not respond to several requests by phone and by email for comment. Three days after the Done Taw attack, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper dismissed reports of the slayings as “fake news,” accusing unidentified countries of “wishing to disintegrate Myanmar” by inciting bloodshed. A closer view of Thantlang after fires destroyed numerous buildings. Chin Human Rights Organization / via AP Since the military seized power in February, more than 1,375 people have been killed by soldiers and police, and more than 11,200 arrested, according to the AAPP. In May, the opposition National Unity Government announced a new military wing, the People’s Defense Force, and in September declared a “defensive war.” Loose-knit guerrilla groups calling themselves PDF have since emerged across the country, with varying degrees of allegiance to the NUG. An early example of the military unleashing its battle-tested tactics on majority Buddhist areas came just 23 miles up the river from Done Taw in Kani township. In July, images circulated of massacres in four small villages that Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations called “crimes against humanity.” Four witnesses told the AP that soldiers killed 43 people in four incidents and discarded their bodies in the jungle. “We all live in fear,” said a woman whose brother was killed, who like the other villagers asked to remain anonymous for safety. The army’s attacks in Sagaing are thought to be the opening salvo in a campaign to stamp out resistance in Myanmar’s northwest, and recent troop movements suggest violence could soon pick up. In this Oct. 14, 2021, aerial photo released by the Chin Human Rights Organization, a military convoy approaches Thantlang in Chin State in northwest Myanmar. Chin Human Rights Organization / via AP Two military convoys of more than 80 trucks each with troops and supplies from Sagaing have made it to neighboring Chin state, according to an opposition group. And a former military captain, who deserted in March, told the AP that soldiers in Chin State were resupplied and reinforced in October, and the army is now stockpiling munition, fuel and rations in Sagaing. “We’re talking about the Bamar heartland that basically should be the core foundation of this military,” said Manny Maung, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. “It’s telling how worried the military is of its own people.” As fresh soldiers have flowed into Chin state, residents have reported troops putting down protests with live rounds and brutal beatings. A Myanmar refugee, 21, who fled with her two younger brothers during the violence in the town of Matupi in northwestern Myanmar, at an undisclosed location, in India. Manish Swarup / AP A teacher in the town of Mindat said the military fired artillery into the town so the “houses would shake like an earthquake,” she said. She fled to India in October after her cousin, a member of the PDF, was killed by a sniper. A half-day’s drive west from Mindat lies Matupi, a town with two military camps that is now bereft of its young people, according to a college student who fled with her two teenage brothers in October. She said the military had locked people into houses and set them alight, hid bombs in churches and schools, killed three protest leaders she knew and left bodies in the middle of roads to terrorize people. Thantlang, a town near the Indian border, has also been emptied of its people after four months of heavy fighting, according to the Chin Human Rights Organization. Drone footage shot by the group in October and December and seen by the AP shows fires raging inside buildings and charred churches, collapsed schools and ruined homes. The footage matches fires detected by satellites and interviews with villagers. NBC News has not been able to verify this footage. Still, there are growing signs the military’s strategy of intimidation may be steeling people’s resistance rather than leaving them cowed. “Instead of dying fleeing, I will use my life for a purpose,” said one Kani survivor. Likewise, the farmhand who told the AP about the Done Taw massacre is now defiant, vowing to take up with the PDF. “I have just decided to fight until the end for them,” he said. “I will do whatever I can until I die or until I am arrested.”

Right-wing Hindu activists at a conference took an oath to harm Muslims if necessary to make “a Hindu-only nation,” the most blatant example of rising anti-Muslim sentiment across India. Muslims praying on Friday in Gurugram, India. In recent months, Hindu nationalists have interrupted prayers there with battle cries. Credit...Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters By Sameer Yasir Hundreds of right-wing Hindu activists and monks rose in unison at a conference this week to take an oath: They would turn India, constitutionally a secular republic, into a Hindu nation, even if doing so required dying and killing. “If 100 of us are ready to kill two million of them, then we will win and make India a Hindu nation,” said Pooja Shakun Pandey, a leader of Hindu Mahasabha, a group that espouses militant Hindu nationalism, referring to the country’s Muslims. “Be ready to kill and go to jail.” Even by the standards of the rising anti-Muslim fury in India, the three-day conference in the city of Haridwar, 150 miles north of New Delhi, produced the most blatant and alarming call for violence in recent years. The crowded auditorium, where right-wing Hindu monks called for other Hindus to arm themselves and kill Muslims, included influential religious leaders with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party, and even some members of the party. Videos of the event have spread widely on social media in India this week. Yet Mr. Modi has maintained a characteristic silence that analysts say can be interpreted by his most extreme supporters as a tacit signal of protection. The police, who readily jail rights activists and comedians on charges lacking evidence, have been slow to take action. Even opposition political groups have been restrained in their response, an indication of the degree to which right-wing Hindu nationalism has gripped the country since Mr. Modi came to office in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October. Analysts say his silence about the right-wing Hindu conference could be interpreted by his most-extreme supporters as a tacit signal of protection. Credit...Manish Swarup/Associated Press The inflammatory remarks come as some states governed by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., are holding elections, including in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the conference was held. Mr. Modi was busy campaigning this week in Uttar Pradesh for Yogi Adityanath, his hard-line protégé and the state’s chief minister, who has frequently fanned anti-Muslim hatred. Multiple episodes of violence against Muslims have been reported during election season, including attacks by mobs trying to close businesses owned by Muslims. “There are virtually only a handful of political leaders left who even mention the need to preserve India’s secularism,” said Gilles Verniers, a professor of political science at Ashoka University near New Delhi. “The B.J.P. may face increasing political challenges, but it has won its cultural war, with lasting effects on India’s democracy, and on India’s largest minority.” Right-wing Hindu nationalists have preached violence online for years, but the violence has recently spilled onto the streets. Muslim fruit sellers have been beaten and their earnings snatched away after being accused of luring Hindu women into marriage to convert them. Muslim activists have been threatened with prosecution under an antiterrorism law that has been scrutinized by courts. In recent months, Hindu nationalists in Gurugram, a major technology center about 15 miles south of New Delhi, have confronted Muslims during Friday Prayer. Bands of right-wing Hindus have interrupted prayers with chants of “Jai Shri Ram!” Meaning “Hail Lord Ram,” a major Hindu god, the chant has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists. “We are fast losing everything in this country, including the right to worship,” said Niyaz Farooqi, a Muslim who works in an automobile showroom in Gurugram. “A right given to us by the Constitution of this country.” On Friday, four days after the conference ended, and after the videos circulated widely, the police in Uttarakhand announced that they had opened an investigation but that no arrests had been made. Officials said they have registered a case against organizers of the conference for promoting “enmity between different groups on grounds of religion,” which can mean a jail term of five years. A rally held by Mr. Modi for his party in Uttar Pradesh this week. The inflammatory remarks at the conference come as states including Uttar Pradesh are holding elections. Credit...Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images “We will do the investigation as per law and such types of incidents will not be tolerated,” said Ashok Kumar, a top police officer in the state of Uttarakhand. During the conference, Swami Prabodhanand Giri, head of a right-wing Hindu organization in Uttarakhand, said the country now belongs to Hindus. “This is why, like in Myanmar, the police here, the politicians here, the army and every Hindu must pick up weapons, and we will have to conduct this cleanliness drive,” he said while referring to Muslims. “There is no solution apart from this.” Mr. Prabodhanand’s aides declined to comment for this article. Videos from the conference also showed Suresh Chavhanke, who heads a news channel, administering an oath to turn India into a Hindu-first country. “We make a resolution until our last breath: We will make India a Hindu nation, and keep it a Hindu-only nation,” he said. “We will fight and die if required, we will kill as well.” He then tweeted a video of the oath to his half a million followers. Political observers say the government is allowing hate speech of this kind by remaining silent in the face of calls for violence, a silence underscored by the meekness of the political opposition. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a biographer of Mr. Modi who has written extensively on the rise of the Hindu right, said the B.J.P.’s earlier leaders thought they could use Hindu nationalism to mobilize constituencies but then contain the ideology. That calculation backfired in 1992, when Hindu activists demolished a major mosque. Many earlier B.J.P. leaders expressed regrets about the episode, but Mr. Modi has no such qualms, Mr. Mukhopadhyay said at a recent book event. “They thought they were going to ride the tiger, easily tame it and get down. But you can’t easily tame a tiger. If you ride the tiger, you have to decide that at some point the tiger is going to eat,” he said. “Modi decided to allow the tiger to eat sometimes and lead the tiger when he wants to.” Mujib Mashal contributed reporting. Copyright 2021 The New York Times Company

The aid group Save the Children said two of its workers had been killed in the attack, which opposition activists said was carried out by government soldiers. Myanmar government troops rounded up villagers, some believed to be women and children, fatally shot more than 30 and set the bodies on fire on Dec. 24, 2021, according to reports.KNDF / AP A senior U.N. official called on Myanmar authorities to investigate the reported killing of at least 35 civilians that opposition activists say was carried out by government soldiers, saying he was “horrified” at the violence. The ruling military has not commented on the killings near Mo So village in Kayah State on Friday and several calls since Saturday to junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun went unanswered. State media reported on Sunday that soldiers had fired on and killed an unspecified number of “terrorists with weapons” in the village. It did not say anything about civilians. Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said there were credible reports that the civilians, including at least one child, were forced from vehicles, killed and burned. He did not elaborate on why he considered the reports credible. Martin Griffiths, the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, said he was “horrified” at the violence. Fabrice Coffrini / AFP - Getty Images “I am horrified by reports of an attack against civilians ... I condemn this grievous incident and all attacks against civilians throughout the country, which are prohibited under international humanitarian law,” he said in a statement. Griffiths called for “a thorough and transparent” investigation so the perpetrators could be brought to justice. The Save the Children aid group said two of its workers, traveling to their home villages for the year-end holiday, had been killed by the Myanmar military in the attack. It suspended operations in Kayah State and parts of neighboring Karen State and the Magway region. The two staff were both new fathers who were passionate about educating children, the group said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that violence against civilians was intolerable. “The U.N. Security Council must convene as soon as possible to set out the steps they will take to hold those responsible to account,” chief executive Inger Ashing said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the attacks and called on the international community to end the sale of arms and dual-use technology to the Myanmar military in an effort to prevent the “recurrence of atrocities.” “The targeting of innocent people and humanitarian actors is unacceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Evelyn Hockstein / Pool via AP “The targeting of innocent people and humanitarian actors is unacceptable, and the military’s widespread atrocities against the people of Burma underscore the urgency of holding its members accountable,” Blinken said in a statement, using another name for the country. Two residents and the Karenni Human Rights Group, which operates in the area, said soldiers had killed more than 30 civilians. They said details were sketchy but it appeared the victims had been in vehicles, including at least one truck, that were stopped on a road. They were killed and the bodies set ablaze, the residents and the rights group said. A villager who declined to be identified for security reasons said he knew there had been a fire at the site on Friday but could not go there as there was shooting. “I went to see this morning. I saw dead bodies that had been burned and also the clothes of children and women spread around,” he told Reuters by phone on Saturday. Photographs posted by the rights group showed charred bodies, some in the back of a burned-out truck. Reuters was not able to independently verify the authenticity of the pictures. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military on Feb. 1 overthrew the elected government of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Some opponents of the military have taken up arms, some linking up with ethnic minority guerrillas who have for years been fighting the government for self-determination in various parts of the country, including Kayah State in the east. The killings and burning of bodies in Kayah State followed similar violence in the central Sagaing region on Dec. 7, when villagers said soldiers rounded up 11 people, shot them and then set fire to their bodies. The military government has not commented on that incident. Since Myanmar’s military launched the coup, more than 1,300 people have been killed in crackdowns on protests and more than 11,000 have been jailed, according to a tally by the Association for Assistance of Political Prisoners rights group. The military disputes the group’s death toll. Fighting has also flared in Karen State, also in the east, between the army and the Karen National Union insurgent group. Thai authorities say more than 5,000 villagers from Myanmar have fled across a border river to the safety of Thai territory since Dec. 16.

Joint NGO Open Letter of Concern to Governments on Mass Atrocities Committed Against the Banyamulenge in the Democratic Republic of Congo First published by Crane Center for Mass Atrocity Prevention December 22, 2021 We, the undersigned representative organization of the Banyamulenge diaspora community alongside international humanitarian partner institutions, firmly condemn the atrocious killing of Major Kaminzobe Joseph in the territory of Fizi, South Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). On December 9, 2021, Major Kaminzobe, a member of the Congolese armed forces (FARDC) and the Banyamulenge ethnic minority, was traveling from his duty station in Fizi to Uvira together with his direct superior and other soldiers in a vehicle belonging to the local health sector. When they reached Lweba, a village located between Baraka and Uvira, villagers pulled him from the vehicle, lynched him, and burned his body. On December 12, 2021, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) issued the following denunciation, “The UNJHRO condemns the murder of an officer of FARDC on 12.09.2021 in Lweba, near Baraka, South Kivu. The UNJHRO learned that this officer in civilian clothes was taken from an ambulance by a crowd and lynched because of his ethnicity (italics added).” This most recent act of violence follows a pattern of calculated and systematic attacks against the Banyamulenge in the Hauts Plateaux region of South Kivu. Since 2017, the remaining Banyamulenge population has been the target of attacks by militias, such as Mai-Mai and RED-Tabara, with the intent to forcibly remove them from their villages. Academics and local sources have estimated that Mai-Mai, often in coordination with elements of the FARDC, have burned hundreds of villages, looted thousands of cattle – which are essential to the Banyamulenge’s livelihoods – killed hundreds of people, and besieged thousands of displaced Banyamulenge in, among others, the Minembwe area of South Kivu Province. While we acknowledge and condemn any ethnically-charged attacks on civilians that may have been perpetrated by armed groups claiming to represent the Banyamulenge, it is important to note that Banyamulenge civilians are essentially unarmed civilians who have been disproportionately targeted with violence and hate speech. This pattern follows decades of persecution and rejection of their collective identity and has only increased in recent years with rhetoric becoming more extreme and violence more devastating. A report published in March 2021 by the UNJHRO found that 80% of all hate speech in the DRC was ethnically motivated, with 31% targeting the Banyamulenge. The pervasive belief that the Banyamulenge are “Rwandan invaders” coupled with calls for their extermination or expulsion from Congolese soil by members of Congolese armed groups, local and national public figures, and members of the Congolese diaspora places the Banyamulenge in a precarious situation. This rhetoric has been accompanied by highly dehumanizing language, including descriptions of the Minembwe area as a “cancer” aimed at enabling the “balkanization” (“fracturing”) of the country that must be excised. In particular, Major Kaminzobe’s death follows decades of Banyamulenge members of the FARDC being targeted with hate speech depicting them as agents of the “balkanization” agenda. To date, the international community has done little to leverage its influence to halt the spread of hate speech and violence in the DRC. In light of the continued atrocities committed against the Banyamulenge, the following actions are required to ensure the safety and security of the population: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) must forge a stronger partnership with the Congolese government and the FARDC to protect vulnerable populations, such as the Banyamulenge, and commit to expanding operations within the Hauts Plateaux. The Congolese government and FARDC leadership must provide security and assistance to all affected civilian populations as well as facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance and unfettered access to the Hauts Plateaux by relief organizations. The European Union, individual Member States, and the United States should expand their existing sanctions to cover individual and collective actors involved in current atrocities in the DRC, including those specifically targeting the Banyamulenge. All named actors above, both domestic and international, should act collaboratively to ensure that actors involved in the atrocities and in the dissemination of hate speech are brought to justice before competent and effective judicial authorities. They must ensure that social media service providers are able to take appropriate measures to curb hate speech on their platforms. The time for words has passed and concrete action must be taken to preserve the security and dignity of the Banyamulenge community. All peoples living within the Democratic Republic of Congo, regardless of ethnicity, have the right to a peaceful existence. Sincerely, Adele Kibasumba, President, Mahoro Peace Association Amber Maze, Executive Director, Crane Center for Mass Atrocity Prevention Dr. Gregory Stanton, President, Genocide Watch Neema Namadamu, Executive Director, Hero Women Rising Courtney Hamilton, Director of Advocacy and Strategic Growth, Jewish World Watch You can view the original version of this statement here.

Proposal to UN for TDF troops to return to Tigray in exchange for an arms embargo on Ethiopia and an end to aircraft attacks By Emmanuel Akinwotu Volunteers at the Zanzalima camp for internally displaced people in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia unloading an aid delivery from USAid on 17 December. Photograph: J Countess/Getty Images Tigrayan forces at war with Ethiopia’s government have pledged to withdraw from neighbouring regions in the north of the country in a sudden step towards a possible ceasefire after more than a year of brutal conflict. Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) outside Tigray have been ordered to return to the region in a “decisive opening for peace”, wrote Debretsion Gebremichael, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), to the United Nations in a letter dated Sunday. “We propose an immediate cessation of hostilities followed by negotiations,” Gebremichael said, saying the TDF were withdrawing from the regions of Amhara and Afar. He demanded a raft of measures, including an immediate no-fly zone for hostile aircraft over Tigray and for arms embargos on Ethiopia and its recent ally Eritrea, whose forces have been engaged in the war that started last November. The Nobel peace prize-winning prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, had launched a military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which had previously ruled Ethiopia for 28 years, following mounting tensions between the government and TPLF. The war has killed thousands of people and sparked a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia, with 400,000 facing famine-like conditions in Tigray and 9.4 million in need of food aid in the region. Debretsion said he hoped the TDF withdrawal would force the international community to ensure that food aid could enter Tigray. The United Nations has previously accused the Ethiopian government of effectively operating a blockade halting urgently needed humanitarian assistance, which Ethiopian authorities have repeatedly denied. Ethiopia’s government has yet to respond to the ceasefire offer yet calls for a cessation of fighting have been largely ignored by both the government and the TPLF, with disputes over the conditions for an end to the conflict. Ethiopian authorities called for a ceasefire in June, as Tigrayan forces rebounded and made significant gains, including invading Amhara and Afar. The current ceasefire proposal by the TPLF comes amid continuing conflict and increasing pressure by government and government-aligned forces since November, when Ahmed declared he was joining the conflict on the ground. “We hope that by [us] withdrawing, the international community will do something about the situation in Tigray as they can no longer use [it] as an excuse that our forces are invading Amhara and Afar,” a TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters. Other measures urged in the letter were the release of political prisoners and thousands of Tigrayans who have been detained by the government – and for international investigators to look into potential war crimes. Atrocities alleged against all sides in the conflict have only gradually emerged this year, partly a result of a communications blackout in Tigray by Ethiopia’s government as well as widely condemned restrictions on aid agencies, rights groups and observers. Last week a joint report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch based on accounts from survivors and witnesses, detailed house-to-house raids and detentions of ethnic Tigrayans and how thousands were being held in prisons and makeshift detention centres. Witnesses and survivors said many were being tortured and starved, or killed in attacks by Ethiopian-aligned forces. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies.

Sagaing Massacre Latest in Military’s Escalating Terror Campaign By Manny Maung A resident walks past smoldering houses following an alleged military attack on Kinma village, Pauk township, Magway Region, in central Myanmar, June 16, 2021. © 2021 AP Photo In a year where atrocities by Myanmar’s military have been commonplace, credible reports of a massacre of 11 people, including 5 children, who were bound, shot, and then burned, have sparked revulsion and outrage. Photos and video circulated online show the remains of the victims in Don Taw village, Sagaing Region, in northwestern Myanmar. Villagers returning from hiding after fleeing a military raid used their mobile phones to record the charred remains on December 7, 2021. Local media reported that government security forces committed the killings in retaliation for an attack earlier that morning by anti-junta militia. The United Nations issued a statement that it was “appalled and alarmed at the escalation of grave human rights abuses in Myanmar.” But the killings – and the burnings of the bodies – bear all the hallmarks of the Myanmar military. Decades of impunity for the worst crimes have created a mindset that soldiers can brazenly commit such atrocities without fear of being held accountable. Human Rights Watch has previously documented the Myanmar military’s scorched earth campaigns in ethnic minority areas in Kachin and Karen States, and in Rakhine State against the ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine populations. The Myanmar military is now deploying those tactics in the Sagaing Region, committing atrocities against civilians in response to attacks by People’s Defense Forces on security forces. From May to August, massacres were reported in villages across Kani township, with dozens of civilians killed in a series of incidents. In September, the military also was implicated in massacres against the ethnic Yaw people in Gangaw township and elsewhere in Magwe Region. Concerned governments should impose asset freezes that impact the flow of revenues to Myanmar’s military. But they should also press for the United Nations Security Council to refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court. Prosecutors in many countries can also use the legal principle of universal jurisdiction to bring to justice to military commanders implicated in war crimes and other abuses. That’s happened recently in Argentina, where a national court will investigate the military’s crimes against the Rohingya, the first court to hear directly from the Rohingya victims themselves. The latest killings show Myanmar’s military is escalating its campaign of terror. Without urgent and coordinated international efforts to halt military abuses, more atrocities can be expected in the year ahead. © 2021 Human Rights Watch