Ethiopia removes ‘terrorist’ label from Tigray rebel group

The terrorist designation given to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, will be removed, Ethiopian lawmakers decided in a special session Wednesday (22 March), but UN human rights experts have warned that violations committed during the armed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region must still be investigated if long-term peace is to be achieved.
Lawmakers in Ethiopia’s lower house of parliament approved the move by a majority vote. The decision is the latest step in an African Union-brokered peace deal in November last year between both sides that ended a two-year civil war. Ethiopia’s federal government labeled the TPLF a ‘terrorist organization’ in May 2021, a few months before war broke out between forces loyal to each side. The war left thousands of people dead and displaced millions more. Based in the peace deal, Tigrayan forces handed over heavy weapons to the federal government, which has in turn opened aid corridors and resumed essential services to the region.
The three-member UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, which presented its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva Tuesday, has welcomed “commitments to human rights, protection of civilians, unhindered humanitarian access and accountability.” But despite these positive developments, the Commission’s Chairman Mohamed Chande Othman told the Human Rights Council the gravity and scale of violations committed in Ethiopia since the war’s outbreak in November 2020 must not be forgotten. Othman added that independent investigations and accountability for grave violations are essential to ensure justice for survivors and “deter the commission of future violations and abuses.”