The Commission of Inquiry on the Tigray Genocide has released a special report on internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Tigray in August 2025, entitled “The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons in Tigray: A Special Assessment Report.” Based on assessments conducted across 92 IDP sites and host communities, the report documents large-scale killings, enforced disappearances, injuries, and sexual violence, alongside severe shortages in food, shelter, healthcare, and education.
Among the 92 assessed sites is the Hitsats IDP site in the Northwestern Zone of Tigray. At this site alone, the deaths of 325 IDPs were recorded during the March-April 2025 assessment, primarily due to the lack of food, medical care, and other basic necessities.
Hitsats IDP Camp is located in the entry to the town of Hitsats, in Asgede Wereda, Northwestern Tigray. The sun in Hitsats is so unbearable that the IDPs spend their days by going to nap under the shade of big trees. Many IDPs carry plastic beddings or just their clothes to spread under the shade of the trees and nap there all day long. The strong ones go to nearby mountains to mine gold. But they hardly get lucky. This IDP camp has been a destination for over 4625 IDP households.
The IDPs in this camp are grouped in 7 Weredas in accordance with where they came from. Most in the camp are from Western Tigray, the rest are from Northwestern Tigray, various regional states of Ethiopia, and Sudan. Out of the 4625 IDP households, only a few have received the infrequent, below-standard aid in the past. But currently, IDP households that have never received aid are in dire need of help. The shelters are made up of torn plastic covers. We have found over 76 elderly and orphaned children IDPs sheltered in a place a little further from the concentrated IDP sight camp in the town entry. Over 76 IDPs have been told that they are unfit for aid since they cannot travel the near 20-minute walk and get their names checked by the air-workers. Living without any shelter, just shaded under trees. During the March-April 2025 assessment, a total of 325 people have died from the IDP site in Hitats. 2 people have lost their lives on two separate occasions due to the collapse of shelters the IDPs live in. Countless youth have migrated out of the camp and into Arab countries.
The number of IDPs is still rising in this highly concentrated camp, as the flow of IDPs has not stopped yet. Coordinators at the camp informed us in May 2025 that 121 IDP households arrived in the camp from Sudan.
Now, the IDPs live an insecure life in a highly concentrated and vulnerable camp, under the unbearable sun, shaded inside shelters that are half erect.