NAIROBI, July 15, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Doctors Without Borders on Tuesday said three of its staff were "intentionally" killed in 2021 during fierce fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region, accusing the government of failing to "fulfil its moral obligations" to conclude investigations.

The northern region of Tigray erupted in a brutal civil war against the federal government from 2020 and 2022 that cost some 600,000 lives.

The conflict prompted a humanitarian disaster, leaving one million displaced, and a fragile peace deal has caused simmering resentment.

Maria Hernandez, a 35-year-old Spanish national, was one of MSF's emergency coordinators in Tigray. Ethiopians Yohannes Halefom Reda and Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, both 31, were a coordination assistant and driver for the NGO.

All three employees of MSF-Spain were shot dead on June 24, 2021, in southern Tigray.

The NGO said they and their vehicle were all clearly identified.

"The review confirmed that the attack was an intentional and targeted killing of three clearly identified aid workers," reads MSF's statement.

According to the medical charity a convoy of Ethiopian soldiers was present at the time of the attack.

MSF said despite numerous follow-ups with the federal authorities in Addis Ababa they had not received "any credible answers" and the government had "failed to fulfil its moral obligations to conclude an investigation into the attack".

The report follows from an international investigation in 2022 when the NGO said the three aid workers had been killed "intentionally," without providing further details.

The New York Times claimed in a 2022 investigation that an Ethiopian colonel had given the order to kill the three aid workers.

But Raquel Ayora, director general of MSF-Spain said on Tuesday "We cannot confirm that or go that far".

The report's findings were presented to authorities, who did not respond, the NGO said.

The army and federal authorities have also not responded to AFP's inquiries.

The 2020-2022 war pitted federal forces, supported by local militias and the Eritrean army, against Tigrayan rebels.

Ethiopian authorities refused to meet with the president of MSF-Spain to discuss the NGO's investigation into the killings.

They were also barred from entering Tigray, which at the time was still engulfed by conflict.

All of the warring parties have been accused of war crimes.

However, NGO The Sentry said in June while all sides perpetrated war crimes the nature of the atrocities committed by the Eritrean army were "unmatched in scale and premeditation".

Ethiopia, the continent's second most populous country with approximately 130 million inhabitants, has been led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since 2018.

Federal forces are also accused of abuses in the country's two most populous regions, Amhara and Oromia, which are in the grip of armed insurgencies.