Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea, claimed claims of rights violations by his soldiers in Ethiopia's Tigray area amounted to "fiction" during a rare press conference last week.
Ethiopia issued a warning on Wednesday, expressing concern that investigations into atrocities that occurred during the country's northern conflict by UN-backed investigators would "undermine" the development of a peace agreement agreed upon last year.
To end the two-year Tigray war, which has killed untold numbers of people and sparked a humanitarian crisis, the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a peace agreement in South Africa in November.
In its initial report, the UN-backed International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia declared that it had found evidence of abuses by all parties that would qualify as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The government of Ethiopia has rejected the findings and launched a diplomatic drive to gain support from other countries for its effort to halt the commission's work.
About the African Union, which served as the negotiations' mediator, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia Demeke Mekonnen warned on Wednesday that the commission "could undermine the AU-led peace process & the implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement with inflammatory rhetoric."
Before the pan-African bloc's summit in Addis Abeba this weekend, he stated at an AU ministerial session that "it might also impede the efforts of national institutions." The foreign ministry announced this on Twitter.
The UN Human Rights Council's three-member commission has urged the Ethiopian government, its partner Eritrea, and the TPLF to investigate the allegations and prosecute all abusers.
Isaias Afwerki, the president of Eritrea, claimed claims of rights violations by his soldiers in Ethiopia's Tigray area amounted to "fiction" during a rare press conference last week.
Isaias responded to inquiries concerning the deployment of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia by saying, "This is a fiction in the imaginations of individuals who are... in this factory I call a factory of generating falsehoods."
The United States and human rights organizations have charged Eritrea's army with some of the worst atrocities committed throughout the conflict as it aided Ethiopian forces.
According to locals who accuse the soldiers of murder, rape, and looting, Asmara was not a party to the peace deal, and its forces are still present in several areas of Tigray.
Following the peace agreement provisions, the TPLF consented to disarm in exchange for reopening Tigray's access to the outside world, which had been virtually closed off during the conflict.
Since the agreement, certain essential services and assistance deliveries have resumed to Tigray, suffering from severe food shortages, fuel, money, and medications. Six million people live in a location with limited access, making it impossible to confirm the situation there independently.
The conflict started in November 2020 after Nobel Peace Prize winner and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed moved soldiers into Tigray and claimed the TPLF had attacked army positions there.
