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The Ethiopian government has fired five prison officials while it faces allegations of torture and other prisoner abuses as part of a wave of reforms. Among those who were fired, the federal prison leader recently described the treatment of detainees as "fair". The shooting preceded a new Human Rights Watch report released Thursday, which documents widespread arbitrary detention, torture, rape and humiliation. several years in the eastern region of Somali Ethiopia. He urged the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to investigate the "horrible" situation.
Abiy admitted that security forces have tortured people but have not yet "fought against Ethiopia's culture of impunity". Human Rights Watch.
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Ethiopian government officials were not immediately available for comment. In recent days, state television has broadcast interviews with detainees who alleged violations of their rights.
"I was detained in isolation in most of my detention," said a former detainee detained for three years. . "I was only released at night for torture, they did a lot of things to me – they electrocuted my testicles, they tied wire around them and they put a bag plastic with chili powder on my head.
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The Human Rights Watch report states that the abuses occurred in a prison called Jail Ogaden and that the security forces of the prison, including the notorious paramilitary force of the Somali region, Liyu police, is involved. The unit reports to Somali President Abdi Mohamoud Omar, according to the report, urging regional leaders to hold security forces accountable.
While the report focuses on a single region, Human Rights Watch routinely receives allegations of abusive interrogations throughout the country. The report describes a brutal series of abuses with little access to medical care, family, lawyers or even food.
Most of the detainees were suspected of having links with the Ogaden National Liberation Front, one of three armed groups on Ethiopia's terrorism list this week.
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