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Ethiopia's Aid Workers: Call for Justice After Intentional Killings

Doctors Without Borders demands accountability for the murder of three aid workers in Tigray amid government inaction.

By Eve Sampson and Declan WalshSource: nytimes.com1 min read
Ethiopia's Aid Workers: Call for Justice After Intentional Killings
Image via nytimes.com

In brief

A recent report identifies Ethiopian soldiers as key suspects, leading to renewed calls for thorough investigations into the 2021 attack.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has issued a strong statement accusing the Ethiopian government of failing to investigate the 2021 killings of three of its aid workers in Tigray. In a report released recently, MSF implicates Ethiopian soldiers in the incident and urges the government to hold them accountable. The aid workers were found shot on a road in the northern region during the height of a civil conflict.Raquel Ayora, a senior MSF official, expressed her frustration, stating, "Our team was executed. There is no way the perpetrators could not know that they were killing civilians." The report, while not explicitly naming those responsible, draws parallels to a 2022 New York Times investigation that pointed to an Ethiopian military officer who had earlier been implicated in ordering the killing of the workers. In the months preceding the murders, MSF noted rising tensions between international humanitarian organizations and the Ethiopian forces, and they highlighted the presence of retreating soldiers at the scene of the crime. Despite repeated claims from the Ethiopian government that an investigation was underway, families of the victims are still left without satisfactory answers regarding the tragedy.

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