Thousands have died in the fighting in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday said that “possible war crimes” have been reported in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and insisted authorities must open humanitarian access.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, ordered troops into Tigray in early November, a move he said came in response to attacks on federal army camps orchestrated by the northern region’s ruling party.

Thousands have died in the fighting, according to the International Crisis Group, and tens of thousands of refugees have streamed across the border into Sudan.

“The situation on the ground goes well beyond a purely internal ‘law and order’ operation. We receive consistent reports of ethnic-targeted violence, killings, massive looting, rapes, forceful returns of refugees and possible war crimes,” Borrell wrote in a blog post.