- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
Tigray rebels gang-raped women and girls in Ethiopia war: Amnesty
Tigrayan fighters deliberately killed civilians and gang-raped dozens of women and underage girls in two towns in Ethiopia's Amhara region last year, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, the latest example of the horrific toll exacted by the 15-month war.
The rights watchdog interviewed 30 rape survivors -- some as young as 14 -- and other victims of violence to draw a picture of the atrocities in Chenna and Kobo in August and September after rebels from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) seized control of the towns.
Nearly half the victims of sexual violence said they were gang-raped, with doctors telling Amnesty that some survivors had suffered lacerations likely caused by rifle bayonets being inserted into their genitals.
A 14-year-old schoolgirl told the rights group she and her mother were both raped by TPLF fighters who said the attacks were in revenge for atrocities committed against their own families.
"One of them raped me in the courtyard and the other raped my mother inside the house," she said.
"My mother is very sick now, she is very depressed and desperate. We don't speak about what happened; it is impossible."
The investigation follows the publication of an Amnesty report in November which documented sexual assaults by Tigrayan rebels in the Amhara town of Nifas Mewcha.
"Evidence is mounting of a pattern of Tigrayan forces committing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in areas under their control in the Amhara region from July 2021 onwards.
"This includes repeated incidents of widespread rape, summary killings and looting, including from hospitals," Amnesty's deputy director for East Africa, Sarah Jackson, said.
- Revenge killings -
Residents of Kobo said TPLF fighters shot dead unarmed civilians, apparently in a revenge killing spree after facing resistance to their advance by Amhara militias.
"The first dead bodies we saw were by the school fence. There were 20 bodies lying in their underwear and facing the fence and three more bodies in the school compound. Most were shot at the back of their heads and some in the back.
"Those who were shot at the back of their heads could not be recognised because their faces were partially blown off," one male resident said.
The watchdog said its satellite imagery analysis revealed the existence of the new burial sites referred to by the villagers.
The TPLF did not respond to the latest allegations, Amnesty said. But the rebel group has previously criticised the watchdog over its earlier report on alleged atrocities in Nifas Mewcha, saying it would conduct its own probe and bring perpetrators to justice.
The war in northern Ethiopia has been punctuated by accounts of massacres and mass rapes, with thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands on the brink of starvation.
Amnesty has previously documented the rape of hundreds of women and girls by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers in Tigray.
A joint investigation by UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet's office and the government-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published last November found evidence of "serious abuses" by all sides, saying that some violations may amount to crimes against humanity.
P.Mathewson--AMWN