The State of Ethiopia has announced that it “plans to close two camps” in the north of province of Tigray, the Shimelba and Hitsats refugee camps. These camps housed more than 20,000 refugees, nearly all of them from Eritrea. The Head of the Ethiopian Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA), Tesfaye Gobezay, said that the proximity to the Eritrean borders and harsh geographical conditions were the reasons for the decision to shut the camps. Mr Tesfaye said that Shimbela camp is located 20km (12 miles) from the Eritrean border, “in violation of accepted global principle that refugee camps should be at least 50km away from borders”. (It should be noted that ARRA is funded by and under the command of the Ethiopian government.)
Mr. Gobezay’s announcement was notable more for what it did not mention than for what he actually said to journalists. From the start of hostilities in Tigray, these two refugee camps have not been accessible to aid agencies or journalists throughout the period of fighting. Foreigners and the media were banned from the area, and four aid agency staff were killed while UN staff who attempted to reach them in Shimelba camp were shot at. No food, water or medical supplies reached the camps. The refugees suffered starvation since the end of November, to the extent that they were forced to eat grass and roots.
Mr. Gobezay’s remarks imply that the camps are still open, that the Ethiopian government has control of the area, and that it is now making the decision to close the camps.
The truth is otherwise. For most of the last ten weeks the camps have been under the military control of officially unacknowledged Eritrean military forces, which have terrorized the occupants, executed some of them, and ultimately forced all the remaining refugees still in the camps to leave and walk long distances, at gunpoint and without food or water, until they were packed into lorries and forcibly abducted to Eritrea, the very state from which they had fled. The UNHCR (which is officially in charge of these camps) acknowledges that 20,000 refugees are unaccounted for. Only around 3,000 refugees from Shimelba and Hitsats camps found their way to the other two refugee camps in the South of Tigray, Mai-Aini, and Adi-Harush.
Soon after the refugees were forcefully evicted from the northern camps, fire rapidly spread through both camps. Clear evidence of this burning came through satellite photography. It is presumed that the Eritrean military set fire to the two camps, burning down all buildings, including aid agency property. Recent reports suggest that the camps the Ethiopian government says it has just decided to close have for some time been nothing more than smouldering ruins, effectively destroyed immediately after their inhabitants were abducted.
Human Rights Concern –Eritrea (HRCE) believes that “Crimes against humanity have been committed in Tigray province, notably in the appalling treatment of Eritrean refugees in the Shimelba and Hitsats camps.
HRCE calls for an immediate independent international Inquiry to be instituted to research and confirm exactly what happened in the Shimelba and Hitsats Refugee camps, and to uncover who was responsible for the crimes committed there. Those identified as responsible should be referred to the International Criminal Court for prosecution for war crimes. HRCE calls upon the government of Ethiopia to grant full access and support to the work of this Inquiry.
Compensation should be offered to all whose property was destroyed in the camps and to the families of the refugees and the aid workers who were killed.
HRCE also calls upon the government of Ethiopia to guarantee the protection and safety of the remaining refugees in Tigray and throughout the state of Ethiopia.
HRCE calls upon the state of Eritrea to release all refugees it has forcibly abducted from camps in Tigray and to allow them safe passage out of Eritrea in the custody of the UNHCR.
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
