Addis Abeba — In the aftermath of the war in Tigray, which began in November 2020 and formally subsided in late 2022 without true resolution or any accountability, Ethiopia faces an existential test: whether it will confront atrocity with truth or bury it beneath denial. As calls for transitional justice grow louder, one reality remains impossible to ignore--denial of atrocities committed during the genocidal war against Tigray is ongoing, systematic, and deeply embedded in political discourse. This denial is not a side issue; it is a central obstacle to transitional justice in Ethiopia.
The genocidal war against Tigray was not an aberration or a conventional internal conflict. It was a coordinated campaign marked by mass killings of civilians, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, widespread and systematic sexual violence, forced displacement, and the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure. These acts have been conclusively documented by international investigations, human rights organizations, and legal experts. Yet, alongside these crimes, denial persists--not only of individual violations, but of their scale, intent, and ongoing nature.
Denial is a continuation of harm--a deliberate obstruction of truth, justice, and reparations, and an extension of violence against survivors whose suffering is rendered invisible.
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Independent legal and investigative bodies have established that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide were committed against Tigrayans during the genocidal war. The New Lines Institute, applying the Genocide Convention, concluded that Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), Eritrean Defense Forces, and allied militias committed acts constituting genocide against the Tigrayan population, including killings, deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, and measures intended to prevent births through sexual violence.
Conflict-related sexual violence was widespread, systematic, and used as a tool of ethnic destruction. Rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, and sexual torture were perpetrated with clear patterns and intent, amounting to crimes against humanity and genocidal acts.These findings are reinforced by survivor testimonies and medical documentation collected by physicians and human rights experts, demonstrating that sexual violence and other forms of violence continued even after the formal cessation of hostilities, underscoring the absence of accountability and protection.
Why denial makes transitional justice impossible
Despite overwhelming evidence, denial remains entrenched in official narratives. Federal authorities have repeatedly rejected or minimized findings related to mass atrocities, framed documented crimes as isolated incidents, and dismissed survivor testimony as politically motivated. Early denials of Eritrean forces' involvement--now extensively proven--set the template for a broader pattern of negationism that continues today. Senior officials have publicly asserted that the Ethiopian army does not commit massacres, even as independent investigations document otherwise.
Transitional justice is not a symbolic exercise. It requires, at minimum, truth-telling, accountability, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence."
This denial is not limited to past events--it extends to what continues to happen. Survivors face ongoing insecurity, displaced communities remain unable to return home, perpetrators retain power, starvation is denied, and accountability mechanisms are systematically weakened. Denial functions as a political strategy to foreclose justice before it begins.
Transitional justice is not a symbolic exercise. It requires, at minimum, truth-telling, accountability, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence. Each of these pillars collapses under denial.
When the state rejects established facts, survivors are re-traumatized and silenced. When crimes are minimized or reframed, perpetrators are shielded. When genocide is denied, reconciliation is reduced to a hollow slogan devoid of moral substance.
Ethiopia's proposed transitional justice processes have already been criticized for lacking independence, international participation, and victim-centered design. Without confronting denial, these processes become mechanisms of historical revisionism rather than justice.
In the absence of state acknowledgement, the responsibility for preserving truth has fallen on survivors, civil society organizations, women-led groups, medical professionals, and journalists. Their documentation--often undertaken at great personal risk--forms the backbone of the historical record.
Yet these actors face harassment, digital attacks, and accusations of political alignment. Survivors of sexual violence, in particular, confront stigma compounded by official revisionism. Denial thus becomes a tool of social erasure, deepening harm.
What credible transitional justice requires
If transitional justice is to carry any credibility, Ethiopia must begin with an unequivocal acknowledgement of the crimes committed during the genocidal war in Tigray. This requires official recognition of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including ongoing state-sponsored violence.
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It also necessitates the establishment of independent international investigative mechanisms to preserve evidence and identify perpetrators, alongside robust protection for survivor testimonies and human rights defenders. Meaningful justice further demands reparations for victims and the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of displaced communities, as well as comprehensive institutional reforms to prevent the recurrence of such atrocities.
Denial of genocide is not neutrality; it is complicity. In Ethiopia, such denial has become an extension of the genocide against Tigray, actively obstructing justice and deepening a culture of impunity. Transitional justice cannot coexist with negationism.
Justice cannot be built on silence, nor can lasting peace be sustained on denial. Truth is not optional; it is the essential foundation. Without truth, transitional justice risks becoming mere performance. Without accountability, reconciliation turns coercive. And without recognition, any peace achieved will remain fragile and ultimately false. AS
Editor's Note: Batseba Seifu is the co-founder and leader of Gender Empowerment Movement Tigray, a movement advocating for the social, economic, and political empowerment of women and girls in Tigray. She holds a Master of Public Administration from New York University and a BA in Law and Justice from Central Washington University with distinction.
