Ethiopia

 Ethiopia's leader on Tuesday said atrocities have been reported in Tigray, his first public acknowledgement of possible war crimes in the country's northern region where fighting persists as government troops hunt down its fugitive leaders.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also admitted, after repeated denials by authorities, that troops from neighbouring Eritrea have gone into Tigray, where their presence has inflicted "damages" on the region's residents.

"Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in Tigray region," Abiy said in an address before lawmakers in the capital, Addis Ababa.

War is "a nasty thing," he said in Amharic. "We know the destruction this war has caused." He said soldiers who raped women or committed other crimes will be held responsible, even though he cited "propaganda of exaggeration" by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the once-dominant party whose leaders challenged Abiy's legitimacy after the postponement of elections last year.

Commenting on the reported presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia, Abiy said they crossed the border and moved across Tigray, "causing damages to our people ... We won't accept that."

He suggested the Eritrean soldiers are not there with his blessing. "The argument the Eritrean government presents for this is that it is a national security issue because Ethiopian troops are going after [Tigrayan] forces in other locations, so they want to keep controlling border areas," he said. "But they have told us they don't have the willingness to stay as long as we control trenches along the border."

More than 50,000 killed 

Abiy spoke as concern continues to grow over the humanitarian situation in the embattled region that is home to six million of Ethiopia's more than 110 million people. Authorities haven't cited a death toll in the war, but a trio of opposition groups based in Tigray say more than 50,000 have been killed.

The United States has characterized some abuses in Tigray as "ethnic cleansing," charges dismissed by Ethiopian authorities as unfounded. The U.S. also has urged Eritrean troops, who are fighting on the side of Ethiopian government forces, to withdraw from Tigray.