What is "most telling" in the statement of the Ethiopian prosecutor, says Human Rights Watch, is that it ignores "the widespread looting that took place in the week when Ethiopian forces took the city," then "the horrific massacre by Eritrean forces" that occurred after the ambush and "for 24 hours."

According to the organization, the Ethiopian government must moreover "explain its silence on this 24-hour period" after the acknowledged attack by armed and civilian men against Eritrean troops. Because the latter, Human Rights Watch insists, did indeed "summarily execute dozens of residents, shoot civilians in their homes, kill others in the street, and summarily execute some men in detention."

Human Rights Watch deplores such denial. According to its response, the prosecutor's conclusions are moreover not "attempts at authentic accountability," but rather a "whitewashing of abuses and a signal that such crimes are permitted."

And this, the organization concludes, "should signal to Ethiopia's foreign and regional partners that a solid and independent international investigation is the only way to provide the hundreds of victims and their families in Tigray the justice to which they are entitled."

►Also read (in English): Human Rights Watch's response to the Ethiopian prosecutor