>> you're watching al jazeera. a reminder of our top stories. the afghan president has visited the government's last stronghold in the north in a bid to rally troops against an escalating battle at the taliban. if the city falls, the government will lose control of the countries north. afghanistan's interior minister has told al jazeera that government's's are pushing to secure main highways, large cities, and border crossings. local groups are being given arms in a bid to fight back the taliban offensive. >> i am asking the taliban to

stop their brutality. leave killing pete sit down with of and we shall find solutions. i am asking them not to destroy buildings. let's sit together and make coalition government, one that would be acceptable to all sides. the sooner we do this, the better. >> it killed at least 65 people. more than 1000 people have been injured and 600 families have been left homeless. they had a three day period morning. many say a media ownership bill threatens press freedom. it will lead to the closure of broadcasts critical to the government. both groups in the people's liberation front were added to the government's terror list.

mexico reported close to 23,000 new coronavirus cases on wednesday. the more contagious delta variant is not to be behind the increasing number of people going to hospital. for the first time this year, all brazilian state are using less than 80% of their intense of care bed as the country fights a third wave of infections. scientists say vaccines are reducing the number of serious cases. infections and deaths are in decline on their daily numbers remain high. you can follow those stories on our website. back with more news in half an hour. next, it is "inside story." do stay with us. ♪

>> ethiopia calls on its citizens to join the fight against rebels in the region. all sides are being accused of war crimes. how far will the prime minister go to win the battle? this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. ethiopia's nobel peace prize winning prime minister is raising the stakes in the battle. he is urging all capable ethiopians to join the army and stop the region's rebels once and for all. he launched an offensive last year against the people's liberation front but the

government troops have struggled to hold back the rebels despite help from a neighboring country. thousands of government supporters rallied earlier this week to denounce them and deflect criticism of the conflict. >> hundreds of millions of people have a right to be heard. you cannot install a puppet government on us. the leader of ethiopia is a leader chosen by ethiopians and not a government that is forced on us. >> on our soil, no public governments will be established. ethiopians have chosen a who prioritizes what it means to be ethiopian and insurers ethiopians development, a government that will elevate africa and make ethiopia a model to be formed in early september. >> they dominated politics for 30 years until ahmed became

prime minister in 2018. the violence is partly a result of a power struggle. at the end of november, the government announced its forces had taken control of the regional capital. the conflict took a stunning turn in june when forces took back -- and government soldiers withdrew. since then, rebels have pressed into the regions in the east and south. 2 million people have been forced from their homes with more than 50,000 escaping to neighboring sudan. amnesty international says war crimes and crimes against humanity may have been committed. it has accused ethiopian and eritrean soldiers of raping hundreds of women and girls. let's bring in our guest now to talk more about this from london. we have donatella rivera, senior

crisis advisor in the crisis response program at amnesty international. samuel, independent journalists, and also from london, martin, senior research fellow at two of commonwealth studies at the university of london. thank you all for joining us. just to let you know, the ethiopian government and the people's front did not respond to our requests to join the panel but let me start with you, donatella rivera. we mentioned the humanitarian crisis. this report from your organization about the possible crimes taking place, talk to us a little bit more about that and the extent of it. >> this report presents the finding of an investigation that we carried out over several months without being able to visit because the ethiopian government has not until now allowed amnesty international or

any international human rights organization to go there. so we traveled to eastern sudan and interviewed women and girls who have been victims of sexual violence there as well as humanitarian personnel, medical personnel who are assisting these women, and we spoke to dozens of other women and girls by phone really only during that window of opportunity when it was possible to connect via the phone because since the beginning of the conflict last november, there has been on and off prolonged periods of blackouts when it has been impossible to reach anyone there by phone or internet and that remains the case now. the level of sexual violence that has been inflicted on women and girls is shocking.

many of their survivors told us they had been gang rape by multiple perpetrators at times while being held for days and weeks in conditions of sexual slavery. several were raped in front of their children or other family members and very often, they were accompanied by other forms of torture and ethnic slurs, death threats, beatings, mutilations. sort of attacks, assaults that seem to be really aimed at inflicting maximum physical and psychological damage on the survivors. because of the nature of the gratuitous and sadistic physical brutality and the threat and degrading and humiliating

treatment that was going with those atrocities. the scale of the violations is very significant. such conduct by all forces, ethiopian armed forces -- the malicious as well as the soldiers who have been operating alongside ethiopian governments. they have been committing such atrocities. it is not a question of a few isolated cases. those atrocities have been committed all over and right from the beginning from day one when those forces entered the different parts of the region. indicating that the perpetrators

clearly did not worry about accountability. and new that they were acting with impunity. >> you mentioned the lack of accountability. what are you calling on now from the international community to address this? >> obviously, the first address is the ethiopian government. it is the responsibility of the ethiopian government to ensure that these allegations are independently and impartially investigated and promptly, because we are nine months into the complex. those responsible are brought to justice and that the survivors are able to receive the medical care and psychosocial support that they need after the odl's they live -- ordeals they lived through. we are calling on the african union as an important regional

player to use its good offices with the ethiopian government to ensure that it does the right things including allowing the commission of inquiry that has been set up by the african commission and rejected by the ethiopian government to carry out its investigation and last but not least, we are calling on the u.n. secretary general to dispatch the specific mechanism. a team of experts and the special representative on sexual violence in conflict to dispatch those mechanisms, and similarly, the u.n. human rights council to dispatch the special rapporteur on violence against women because so far, the

international community has issued statements of concern and condemnation about sexual violence in the conflict but really, nine months on, the time for statements is over and time for action, this is time to actually take concrete action to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice, which is an no signs of ending. if anything, the development over the last couple of days indicate that the conflict is escalating and expanding to other areas. and for that reason, it is very important that all those who were involved in the conflict,

both on the ethiopian government side and the tpl avenue side, they should know that impunity is not an option, that they commit war crimes and crimes against humanity and human rights violations, that they will be held accountable. regrettably, the lack of action until now for nine months is giving combatants a different message because nobody has been held accountable so far and that is a very dangerous state of affairs. >> it certainly is. we want to talk more about that in a moment. i want to turn to samuel and come back to the prime minister's declaration the day before in which he called on all ethiopians, all capable ethiopians to join in the fight against the tpl f. -- tplf.

has this taken matters to another level when he said this? >> there has been all kinds of pressure coming to the prime minister to act. this conflict began in november and should have ended within a few weeks. we are approaching its first year in november. there was so much pressure for him to act. i echo what has been said by the previous guest. there are many victims. all kinds of accusations. she talked about the window of opportunity. i was able to travel to the region. there are lots of accusations. the government has said they endorse the idea of the wind investigating this accusation with the help of ethiopian human rights and i think that is the best approach but i also wonder if ethiopia or the world will

commit enough resources to investigate this outstanding complaint that has been coming since day one of sexual violence, killing, looting, and all kinds of stuff by all sides. i hope that there will be an investigation done for the sake of the ■victims but i alsowonder if ethiopia or the world will commit enough resources to do a proper investigation. that is the unfortunate part of this conflict or any conflict in the world. >> was this call by the prime minister an act of desperation? he sees the conflict coming out as an existential threat to youth the op as a whole? >> i think it is because let's be honest about this. this is not just in ethiopian conflict. when the war began, they invaded from the north. together with them were some

3000 to 5000 somali troops who had been brought in for precisely that purpose. there was an attack from the east and from the south by the ethiopian army and by malicious. there was a massive attack. they went into the hills and fought back and took them back. there is one thing that is missing in what we have said so far. the appalling suffering that has been outlined by amnesty's report today is not just the active individual commanders or rogue units. let me read two sentences from that report. it says the pattern of sexual violence emerging survivors accounts indicates that violations have been part of a strategy to terrorize them and humiliate the victims and their ethnic group. the fact that such practices

have been widespread and continuous indicates that this strategy has been tolerated at the highest level of government in both ethiopia and eritrea. we have in effect is a strategy of sexual violence perpetrated on the people by the prime minister and president. this did not just happen. it is not just something that is done by bad troops or commanders. this is a strategy and that is why it is so dangerous. >> what does the government actually want here and what do the rebels want, and is there any overlap? anywhere where the two sides can find common ground? >> there was hope that there would be some kind of compromise . the ethiopian government has declared the terrorist group

earlier this year. it is insisting or presenting all kinds of conditions including the recognition of their government, the transfer of funds and the release of all the political prisoners, but with these kind of requests from both sides, i don't think there will be an end in sight. i was able to travel to the region and interview some of victims in person. this meant that this conflict will go on and it will produce more victims, more sexual violence to go on i read the reports from amnesty international that came out last night to us and that is a shock and that is something that needs to be investigated.

this kind of investigation is echoing both sides and i hope that organizations like the united nations, i wonder if they have enough resources or commitment to investigate what is being said by all sides while the amnesty international focuses on the ethiopia and whether sides. there are accusations from all sides and i hope there will be a fair and just study or investigation to be done because again, the victims are overwhelming, and it is even more overwhelming when used week to them as i have in person. >> let's come back to donatella rivera on that. it comes down to this whole idea of a commitment. there has to be a real commitment from outside to tackle this. not just within ethiopia. >> first of all, let's set the

record straight. with the greatest respect. some of what samuel has said is not accurate. amnesty international has been looking at human rights violations by all sides. indeed, the very first press release that amnesty international issued on the two grand -- on the conflict was about the massacre of civilians were the victims were overwhelmingly -- it is just not right to insinuate that amnesty international only looks at one side or the other. we don't. our track record is extremely well proven all over the world. secondly, i have also spoken to victims personally. those who are in the camps in

sudan. my colleagues would have liked to have gone there. the problem is not one of resources. the reason why there have not been more on the ground investigations or any on the ground investigations is simply because the government has not allowed human rights organizations such as amnesty international and others to go there. journalists have had a very hard time and have documented the difficulties they have had operating there. they have only had access to parts of it. manage area and agencies, u.n. and ngos are complaining about their operation being restricted . humanitarian workers have been killed after some very irresponsible statements by government authorities.

humanitarian organizations have also been suspended. the reason we need to investigate allegations about war crimes and human rights violations by all sides, the greatest impediment to doing that are the restrictions to access that are imposed by the ethiopian government as well as the communication blacs that ar- communication blackouts that are imposed on that is supremely important because access is absolutely key to being able to investigate. >> take a step back here a little bit and talk about the regional implications of all of this and what it means to see a destabilized ethiopia in this

region. the longer this conflict goes on. >> it is extremely worrying. one of the most important statements came up from the u.s. institute of peace the day after this conflict began in november last year where they said it threatened the collapse of the ethiopian state so that was a statement made nine months ago and i am afraid it is now looking as if that is indeed a possibility. it is not certain. nobody can be sure what will happen. but thing really important has happened today which is that the liberation army, the largest ethnic group in ethiopia have declared that they have now struck an alliance. this transforms the situation because you now don't just have a mobilization by the central government who are trying to mobilize ethnic militia against them. you now have some of the ethnic groups themselves beginning to

form an alternative alliance against the government. you have a fragmentation and a unification on different lines which is happening right now. as i said right at the beginning, this is a regional conflict. the troops are directly involved. there also have been sudanese forces who have been brought in because there have been clashes along the border. almost anything is possible. if anything is a serious situation where the collapse of ethiopia is a possibility, it is the last thing anybody wants because it will unleash forces that would be unsustainable in the region. but it is a possibility and one that we have to face given the tensions and ethnic rivalries and rifts that are rippling across ethiopia and making the whole situation much more dangerous. >> should the government be focused more on dealing with the

country through problems in order to tackle this rather than the call to arms from the prime minister #>> i don't know how she saw it. when it comes to the report of amnesty international, i grew up admiring the work of amnesty international. i know the work of amnesty international. i was not trying to criticize them. i was focused on this report. i was not referring to a report that came out back in november or december. going back to your question, i think the root cause has to be steady. ethiopia is an important country. i don't think it will become like yugoslavia. it has a strong foundation. my father's generation grew up in europe where everybody was saying ethiopia a breakup because of endless conflicts going on. the famine and all kinds of stuff.

ethiopia survived. ethiopia i hope will survive. it has to begin to have a conversation, a needed conversation between different actors. there are so many differences in ethiopia. there are many organizations that are taking arms to address what they perceive to be injustices done to them or to their people. perhaps it might be my background that i believe that conversation is more important than taking arms but i think ethiopia should begin to look at those options because ethiopia is still a country that is perhaps one of the most stable nations within east africa. it does not have the resources to keep on spending and mis spending money while the majority of the people are living under the poverty line. the focus should perhaps beyond

helping address the issue of poverty in the country. but i think conversation is really important. some of the decent countries, they solve their issues through conversations. i don't think it is in ethiopia's best interest to keep on fighting and addressing all kinds of issues. you know, the arms. >> we are going to leave it there. thank you to all three of you. thank you very much for being on "inside story," and thank you for watching. you can see this and all of our previous programs again anytime by visiting our website, al jazeera.com. for further discussion, go to our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. for the whole team here in doha, goodbye for now.

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