Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers rounded up around 200 displaced civilians during a violent nighttime raid on camps in Ethiopia’s war-hit Tigray region, Amnesty International and witnesses told AFP Tuesday.

It is the largest known operation targeting sprawling displacement camps in the Tigray town of Shire, and comes nearly two months since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed vowed Eritrean troops would leave Tigray.

The soldiers worked together Monday night to detain more than 100 civilians at the Tsehaye camp and at least 76 at a second camp known as Adiwonfito, beating them and snatching their phones before forcing them onto trucks, Amnesty researcher Fisseha Tekle said.

The victims were mostly men — some of them teenagers and at least one in his 70s — and they have been taken to an area known as Guna on the outskirts of Shire, he said.

The displaced population in Shire mostly comes from farming families forced out of western Tigray, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said “ethnic cleansing” is unfolding.

“From the sources I spoke to, they were farmers in the west before they were displaced. There is no way they were special forces, special police or Tigray militias. It’s a kind of mass arrest without any grounds,” Fisseha said.

A witness at Adiwonfito who escaped the roundup told AFP that while individual detentions have occurred in the past, this is the first time soldiers have carried out mass arrests.

Those left behind “are crying and scared so they have fled the camps,” said the witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Tewodros Aregai, interim head of Tigray’s Northwestern Zone, told AFP the arrests were spurred by reports that anti-government forces had infiltrated the camps.

“There was a rumour that some forces joined the [displaced] from outside and they have a plan to do something within three days. The security officials from the Ethiopian defence forces have got this information,” he said.

Screening operations are underway and nine civilians had been released as of Tuesday night, he said.

“We are trying to solve the problem… I hope it will be resolved in a short period of time,” he said.

• Visa restrictions – Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into Tigray last November to detain and disarm leaders of the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). He said the move came in response to attacks on federal army camps. Though he vowed the war would be brief, more than six months later fighting continues, reports of atrocities are proliferating and world leaders are warning of a potential humanitarian catastrophe.
• On Sunday Blinken announced visa and aid restrictions targeting Ethiopian and Eritrean officials. Ethiopia denounced the move as “unfortunate” and “misguided” on Monday, and Eritrea followed suit Tuesday, saying it was “dismayed”. Fisseha told AFP Tuesday he had spoken to multiple witnesses in Shire who said soldiers cried out “Let’s see if the US will save you” as they beat displaced civilians and took them into custody Monday night.

Political turmoil in Mali deepened Tuesday as the country’s strongman pushed out transitional leaders who had been tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August.

Assimi Goita, who headed a junta which seized power less than 10 months ago, said that President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane had been stripped of their powers, and he promised elections in 2022.

The announcement marks the latest crisis to hit the vast, impoverished West African country, which is already struggling with a brutal jihadist insurgency.

Ndaw and Ouane have been heading an interim government that was installed in September under the threat of regional sanctions, with the declared aim of restoring full civilian rule within 18 months.

In a move that sparked widespread diplomatic anger, the pair were detained on Monday by army officers who were disgruntled by a government reshuffle, two senior officials told AFP.

In a statement read on public television, Goita said Ndaw and Ouane had been stripped of their duties for seeking to “sabotage” the transition, which would “proceed as normally.”

“The scheduled elections will be held in 2022,” he said.

Former colonial power France condemned what it called a “coup”, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian demanding the release of the president and prime minister.

Monday’s government reshuffle, designed to respond to growing criticism of the interim government, saw the military keep the strategic portfolios it controlled during the previous administration.

But two other coup leaders — ex-defence minister Sadio Camara and ex-security minister Colonel Modibo Kone — were replaced.

Colonel Goita, who holds the rank of vice president in the transitional government, accused Ndaw and Ouane of failing to consult him on the reshuffle.

“This kind of step testifies to the clear desire of the transitional president and prime minister to seek to breach the transitional charter,” he said, describing this as a “demonstrable intent to sabotage the transition”.

The transitional charter, a document largely drawn up by the colonels, sets down principles for underpinning Mali’s return to civilian rule.

The detention of Ndaw and Ouane sparked international condemnation, which included a rare joint statement by the United Nations, African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the European Union and the United States.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted a call for calm, and urged the leaders’ “unconditional release”.

AU head Felix Tshisekedi, who is also the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, echoed the call, saying he “strongly condemned any action that aims to destabilise Mali”.

• Brewing crisis –

Young military officers ousted the then president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, on August 18 after weeks of mass demonstrations over perceived government corruption and his handling of the jihadist insurgency.

ECOWAS, a 15-nation regional bloc, threatened sanctions, prompting the junta to hand power to a caretaker government that pledged to reform the constitution.

Goita was appointed as vice president of the caretaker administration, and the president, Ndaw, is a retired army officer.

But many have doubted whether the military-dominated government had the will — or the ability — to stage reforms on a short timescale.

Among other problems, the nation faces a major logistical and security challenge as swathes of territory are in the hands of jihadists.

• Public discontent –

Monday’s reshuffle came amid signs of growing public discontent.

The opposition M5 movement — which spearheaded protests against Keita in 2020 — urged dissolving the interim government and demanded a “more legitimate” body.

On May 14, the government said it would appoint a new “broad-based” cabinet.

In the streets of Bamako, life seemed to continue as normal despite the ouster of Ndaw and Ouane, and many people interviewed by AFP said they were resigned to events.

“There was what happened in August and now we have this, but in real terms, it’s none of our business,” said Fatou Diakite, a doughnut seller wearing a purple head dress. “If I stop working, how do I live?”

Toumani Tangara, a 67-year-old former artilleryman, said “the military’s job is to fight. Let them go to the front, let them free (the north of the country) which is in the hands of terrorists! The rest is nonsense.”

Tahirou Bah, a civil society activist, attacked “putschist colonels…. (who) fight to the death for power” at a time when “80 percent of our country is under the control of terrorists, drug traffickers and bandits of every kind.”

But, he said, many people simply focussed on day-to-day living — “This is survival for many Malians.”

Peacekeepers formerly posted to Darfur and hailing from Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region are requesting asylum in Sudan for fear of “torture” and “ethnic cleansing” back home, they have told correspondents.

The personnel were due to be repatriated in line with a withdrawal from Sudan of the joint United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur(UNAMID), after its mandate ended on December 31.

But the UN said earlier this month around 120 former peacekeepers had sought “international protection”.

AFP spoke to several of these Tigrayan peacekeepers at Um Gargour camp in eastern Sudan, where they have found interim sanctuary.

Halka Haqous, 47, a commander of the group that requested asylum, said he did not want to be repatriated “because of discrimination and ethnic cleansing in Tigray” region in northern Ethiopia.

He blamed Ethiopia’s government for the conflict, which erupted in early November, when the country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to detain and disarm leaders of the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.

While he vowed the conflict would be brief, fighting continues and world leaders are warning of humanitarian catastrophe.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and over 60,000 fled into Sudan.

Rights groups have repeatedly alleged that Eritrean troops, operating in support of federal Ethiopian forces in Tigray, have perpetrated atrocities against civilians.

“All of the families from Tigray have been displaced,” said 40-year-old officer Arqawi Mahari.

“I don’t know where my father and mother are. A lot of rapes and other horrible crimes have been committed.”

“We are ethnic Tigrayans, that’s why they (Ethiopian troops) were oppressing us and telling us we were working for the TPLF,” Ferwini, 29, a peacekeeper who provided her first name only, told AFP.

“If I go back to Ethiopia they would kill me or torture me – that’s why I’ve asked for asylum in Sudan,” she added.

An Ethiopian military spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

Abiy’s government has said it is committed to investigating allegations of atrocities in Tigray, and has denied claims it is discriminating against Tigrayans.

Sudan meanwhile is locked in disputes with Addis Ababa over a contentious border zone, and Ethiopia’s construction of a massive hydro-electric project on the Blue Nile.

Downstream Sudan and Egypt see the dam as a major threat to their water supply.