Maat: 821 people were killed in the Africa during July 2022 & Ethiopia is trapped between ethnic massacres and the Al-Shahab movement's intrusion into its territories
Okeil: We call on the Ethiopian government to intensify cooperation with the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia and allow it to operate freely without undue obstacles
Asmaa Abdul-Nasser: We recommend opening urgent investigations into the crime of burning children alive in the DRC
Despite the noticeable decline in the total number of victims of terrorism monitored last July compared to June 2022, terrorist movements are sounding the alarm this month with their expansionist goals and qualitative operations that included burning children, the assassination of high-ranking officials, and detonation with explosive devices. These heinous acts of violence were detailed in Maat’s monthly report “Lens of Terrorist Operations”, July 2022, which was issued under the title "Ethiopia is Trapped between Ethnic Massacres and Al-Shahab Movement's intrusion into its Territories.. How Does the Ethiopian Government React?”
In July 2022, terrorist operations in Africa claimed the lives of 821 people, and East Africa had the largest share of victims with 457 deaths, in the wake of the escalation of fighting between Al-Shabaab and the Ethiopian federal forces, after armed militants managed to intrude into the country borders. For the second month in a row, Ethiopia tops the African countries in terms of the number of victims, with 280 dead.
According to the report, the increase in the death toll in Ethiopia last June was mainly attributed to ethnic fighting. Yet, in July, confrontation with foreign organizations was the key reason behind the fall of victims, supported by the sectarian and tribal strife in the Darfur region. Death toll from terrorism in Sudan alone reached 117.
West Africa ranked second with 269 victims. ISIS and Boko Haram in the West continue to launch their terrorist attacks and terrorize innocent people. Central Africa came third with 53 victims, followed by South Africa, due to armed clashes, and North Africa can last with 19 deaths.
Commenting on the report, Ayman Okeil, an international human rights expert and President of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, indicated that Ethiopia is still struggling with internal strife and massacres that are no less serious than external terrorism, which affirms the desperate failure of the Ethiopian state to remedy its internal ethnic conflict, which made the country an easy prey for foreign predators and terrorist groups.
In the same context, Okeil stressed that Ethiopia continues to obstruct the work of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia. Although the Ethiopian government has accepted the visit of the three experts to the country, the calls for allowing the Commission to have access to the areas relevant for its investigation continues.
Okeil called on the Ethiopian government to intensify its cooperation with international mechanisms, especially the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, and to allow it to have full and immediate access to the sought-after places relevant to its investigation, so that it can visit the sites and speak freely and confidentially with survivors, witnesses and others.
For her part, Asmaa Abdul-Nasser, a researcher in the Sustainable Development Unit at Maat, called for opening urgent investigations into the terrifying crime of burning children alive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and holding the Allied Democratic Forces responsible for it. She also called for regional and international condemnation of this crime, given its indescribable ugliness and flagrant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the international law.
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