Tigray
Background
Many of the victim groups we are working with are from the Irob minority group. They live in the northeastern enclave of Tigray, Ethiopia. This has long been the subject of territorial disputes with Eritrea.
In November 2020, Eritrea's army entered the Irob region and other areas in Tigray as collaborators with Ethiopia's government. This alliance aimed to counter the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a once-dominant political force in Ethiopian politics.
In Tigray, Eritrean troops waged a campaign of brutal violence against the civilian population. By the time of the peace deal in November 2022, hundreds of thousands of people had died.
Our project in Tigray started with calls from local victim groups wanting advice on how to hold certain corporations to account for their role in the conflict. Together with our partners, we are working with these victim groups to discuss various options for justice.
Our work
In mid-2022, we began to turn our attention to the situation in Tigray. Many Tigrayan groups were contacting us to talk about holding perpetrators to account.
These perpetrators included individuals, along with corporations Facebook, and Ethiopian Airlines.
We responded to these enquiries by conducting a scoping exercise. Our focus was on Facebook and Ethiopian Airways.
The biggest complaint against Facebook is its weak content moderation. It relies on volunteers, users and AI to flag hateful content. It employs only a small number of content moderators.
This approach was ineffective due to the frequent internet blackouts during the conflict. Additionally, AI cannot understand the nuances of the Ethiopian language, culture and socialisation.
Facebook’s failure means it is used to spread false information and hate speech. This has had disastrous results.
We already have experience in taking legal action against Facebook. In light of this, we felt would be able to support the Tigrayan groups.
Our research suggested Ethiopian Airlines was allegedly complicit in the Tigray conflict. It appeared complicit in two main ways:
Moving weapons and soldiers to places where it knew war crimes were being carried out,
Restricting civilians from leaving Tigray while it was under siege. It also allegedly prevented them from bringing medicine and other supplies into Tigray.
Our research found several potential options for pursuing legal action. To do this, we partnered with the Tigrayan group Irob Anina.
We are now working together to give support to local victim groups in three main ways:
Documentation of crimes in a way that will make them accepted before courts,
Following various accountability strategies, including those relating to Facebook and Ethiopian Airlines
Linking up Irob Anina with smaller groups in its network.