9,000 Tigrayans remain in detention held without trial in in makeshift prisons in Ethiopia
Posted: 29 Jun 2022, 13:31
Deadly Detention
Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been held without trial in makeshift prisons as Ethiopia’s government battles a 19-month-old insurgency. At least 17 people have died, Reuters reporting shows. Around 9,000 remain in detention.
In a packed Ethiopian prison last November, charity worker Tesfaye Weldemaryam cried out in delirium for two weeks. To make space for Tesfaye to lie down, said a cellmate, other prisoners huddled together in the darkness, their legs aching from constant standing.
Tesfaye, 36, was one of nearly 3,000 ethnic Tigrayans who were crammed into 18 squalid cells in the southern town of Mizan Teferi. Across Ethiopia, Reuters has identified at least a dozen other locations where thousands more Tigrayans have been held without trial as the government battles a 19-month-old insurgency that began in the northern Tigray region.
The United Nations estimates that more than 15,000 Tigrayan civilians were arrested between November and February alone, when emergency laws were in force. Reuters reporting, including interviews with 17 current and former detainees and a review of satellite imagery, indicates that the total number of arrests is at least 3,000 higher than the U.N. estimate. A senior Tigrayan opposition figure, Hailu Kebede, told Reuters he estimates the figure is in the tens of thousands.
The reporting also reveals that some 9,000 Tigrayans are still in detention, contradicting government assertions that most have now been released.
They were crowded into makeshift facilities, including an old cinema, university campuses, a former chicken factory, an industrial park, a construction site and an unfinished prison that was intended to hold convicted criminals, the news agency’s reporting demonstrates. The detainees included women and children.
Most facilities were crowded and dirty, said current and former detainees
Continue reading https://www.reuters.com/investigates/sp ... prisoners/
Thousands of ethnic Tigrayans have been held without trial in makeshift prisons as Ethiopia’s government battles a 19-month-old insurgency. At least 17 people have died, Reuters reporting shows. Around 9,000 remain in detention.
In a packed Ethiopian prison last November, charity worker Tesfaye Weldemaryam cried out in delirium for two weeks. To make space for Tesfaye to lie down, said a cellmate, other prisoners huddled together in the darkness, their legs aching from constant standing.
Tesfaye, 36, was one of nearly 3,000 ethnic Tigrayans who were crammed into 18 squalid cells in the southern town of Mizan Teferi. Across Ethiopia, Reuters has identified at least a dozen other locations where thousands more Tigrayans have been held without trial as the government battles a 19-month-old insurgency that began in the northern Tigray region.
The United Nations estimates that more than 15,000 Tigrayan civilians were arrested between November and February alone, when emergency laws were in force. Reuters reporting, including interviews with 17 current and former detainees and a review of satellite imagery, indicates that the total number of arrests is at least 3,000 higher than the U.N. estimate. A senior Tigrayan opposition figure, Hailu Kebede, told Reuters he estimates the figure is in the tens of thousands.
The reporting also reveals that some 9,000 Tigrayans are still in detention, contradicting government assertions that most have now been released.
They were crowded into makeshift facilities, including an old cinema, university campuses, a former chicken factory, an industrial park, a construction site and an unfinished prison that was intended to hold convicted criminals, the news agency’s reporting demonstrates. The detainees included women and children.
Most facilities were crowded and dirty, said current and former detainees
Continue reading https://www.reuters.com/investigates/sp ... prisoners/