international investigative mechanisms that could have led to justice and accountability for victims and survivors of crimes under international law. BACKGROUND The population forcibly displaced as part of the ethnic cleansing campaign against the Tigrayan community in the Western Tigray Zone were yet to return to their homes. New waves of people displaced from the zone, which is under the administration of Amhara regional civilian and security forces, continued arriving in other parts of the Tigray region. Local media reported that 47,000 people fled in March, while in September over 1,000 people, including those from mass detention centres, fled from the zone. Fighting escalated in the Oromia region, after peace talks between the Oromo Liberation Army and the government failed for the second time, affecting civilians in the region. RIGHT TO FOOD In May, some six months after the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) was signed in November 2022, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the temporary suspension of food aid to the Tigray region. The measure was taken after agencies found evidence of supplies being diverted, allegedly by government agencies and the military. Despite announcements in November and December from USAID and the WFP of their intention to resume food distribution, reports from the region indicated that they were yet to resume distribution in full. The suspension affected more than 4 million people who were already food insecure. Reports from local health professionals and government authorities indicated that, following the suspension, hundreds of people had died from hunger in the region. ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS The government imposed a six-month nationwide state of emergency on 4 August, The State of the World’s Human Rights following widespread armed clashes between the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) and the Fano militia in the Amhara region. The emergency law granted sweeping powers to the security forces, resulting in hundreds of people being detained and denied access to lawyers and courts. While there was evidence of further gross human rights violations emerging during the clashes, the worsening situation prevented effective communication with people in the region, making it difficult to determine the extent of the violations (see below, Freedom of expression and assembly). EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) soldiers continued to carry out extrajudicial executions against civilians in the Tigray region for months after the CoHA was signed. They executed at least 24 civilians between November 2022 and January 2023 in the Kokob Tsibah district. In 2023, Amnesty International verified the extrajudicial executions of at least 20 civilians between 25 October and 1 November 2022 in Mariam Shewito district. However, social workers in the district had a list of more than 100 civilians executed in the same period by the EDF.1 SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE The EDF perpetrated acts of sexual violence against women between November 2022 and late January 2023 in the Kokob Tsibah district in the Tigray region. During this period, EDF soldiers held at least 15 women captive for nearly three months, until 19 January 2023, at their military camp. The women were repeatedly raped by soldiers, in a situation that amounted to sexual slavery. In addition, they endured other physical and psychological abuse, and deprivation of essential resources like food, water and medical services. The EDF also subjected women held captive in their homes in the same district to gangrape and rape. Survivors, social workers and local officials said the EDF targeted these women based on suspicions that their 167