Wed, 8 September 2021, 5:43 am·3-min read
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Rebellious forces from the Tigray region killed 120 civilians over two days in a village in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, local officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
The killings in a village 10 km (six miles) from the town of Dabat took place on Sept. 1 and 2, said Sewnet Wubalem, the local administrator in Dabat, and Chalachew Dagnew, spokesperson of the nearby city of Gondar.
The Tigrayan forces later issued a statement rejecting what they called a “fabricated allegation” by the Amhara regional government and denying any involvement in the killing of civilians.
It is the first such report of Tigrayan forces killing a large number of civilians since they seized territory in Amhara. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in the region as the Tigrayan forces have advanced.
“So far we have recovered 120 bodies. They were all innocent farmers. But we think the number might be higher. There are people who are missing,” Sewnet, the local administrator, told Reuters by phone.
Chalachew, the Gondar city spokesperson, said he had visited the burial area in the village and that children, women and elderly were among the dead.
He said the killings occurred during the Tigrayan forces’ “short presence” in the area, and it was now under the control of the Ethiopian federal army.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the accounts.
In their statement, Tigrayan forces called for “an independent investigation into all atrocities” in the region.
Video interviews provided to Reuters by the Gondar city government indicated that villagers fought the Tigrayan forces.
An interview with a man in an old military uniform said the village had mobilised every able person to fight back against the Tigrayan forces when they heard they were approaching.
“We fought for five days and they retreated,” said the man, who gave his name as Wubet Fekremariam. “When they retreated they killed our people that they found on their way.”
Last month, Ethiopia’s government urged citizens to join the fight against the Tigrayan forces.
HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
War broke out 10 months ago between Ethiopia’s federal troops and forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the Tigray region.
Since then, thousands have been killed and more than 2 million have fled their homes. Fighting spread in July from the Tigray region into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar, also in the country’s north.
Amid the conflict, relations between the ethnic Amharas and Tigrayans have deteriorated sharply.
During the war, regional forces and militiamen from the Amhara region have sought to settle a decades-old land dispute between the Amhara and Tigray regions.
Amhara forces have seized control of western parts of Tigray and driven tens of thousands of Tigrayans from their homes. Though the Tigrayan forces have seized back most of the Tigray region, they have not taken back the heavily militarized and contested area of western Tigray.
The U.S. government’s humanitarian agency said last week Tigrayan forces had in recent weeks looted its warehouses in parts of Amhara.
Responding on Twitter to the agency’s statement on looting, Getachew Reda, the Tigrayan forces’ spokesperson, wrote: “While we cannot vouch for every unacceptable behaviour of off-grid fighters in such matters, we have evidence that such looting is mainly orchestrated by local individuals & groups.”
The U.N. has said a de facto aid blockade on the Tigray region, where some 400,000 people are already suffering famine conditions, has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The Ethiopian government has repeatedly denied allegations by the U.N. and Western governments that it is deliberately impeding the delivery of lifesaving assistance. On Sunday, a U.N. convoy of trucks bearing food and other aid was permitted to enter Tigray for the first time since Aug. 20.
(Reporting by Addis Ababa newsroom, Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Jon Boyle, Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones)
125 villagers massacred in Ethiopia’s Amhara: doctors
By AFP
PUBLISHED: 09:07 EDT, 8 September 2021
Tigrayan rebels seized the regional capital Mekele in late June in a stunning turnaround in the conflict
At least 125 villagers were massacred in Ethiopia’s Amhara region earlier this month, doctors and local officials told AFP Wednesday, but rebels from neighbouring Tigray rejected claims they were responsible.
It was the latest reported mass killing in the 10-month conflict in northern Ethiopia between government forces and Tigray rebels that has claimed the lives of thousands and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.
“There were 125 dead in Chenna village… I saw the mass grave myself,” Mulugeta Melesa, head of the hospital in nearby Dabat town, told AFP.
He said residents were “still searching for dead bodies around the area and counting is still going on”.
The toll could not be independently verified and AFP was not able to confirm whether those killed were civilians or combatants.
A spokesman for the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) denied its forces were to blame.
“We categorically reject claims of our forces’ involvement in the killing of civilians,” Getachew Reda said on Twitter, calling for an independent investigation into “all atrocities”.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission — a state-affiliated but independent body — said it was “alarmed” by the reports and that law enforcement was investigating to confirm the number and identities of the victims.
Northern Ethiopia has been wracked by conflict since November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, a move he said was in response to attacks on army camps.
Though the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner vowed a swift victory, fighting has dragged on, with myriad reports of massacres and other rights abuses.
In a stunning turnaround in the conflict in June, the TPLF retook Tigray’s capital Mekele and federal forces largely withdrew.
Since then the TPLF has launched offensives into neighbouring Amhara and Afar, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and triggering allegations of summary executions and indiscriminate shelling.
The TPLF has denied the charges, insisting it is merely trying to break what it describes as a humanitarian blockade on Tigray and prevent pro-government forces from regrouping.
– Gunshot wounds –
Chenna residents reported that the TPLF controlled the village in late August before fighting against pro-government troops broke out in early September, Sewunet Wubalem, administrator of Dabat district, told AFP.
The rebels then shot dead civilians over multiple days in early September before retreating, he said.
+2
Map locating the village of Chenna in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
Chenna is located roughly 25 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of Dabat.
Some of the wounded were taken to the university hospital in Gondar, a city to the southwest of Dabat.
“The dead bodies are not coming here but there are some wounded civilians here,” said hospital vice president Ashenafi Tazebew.
“We have received close to 35, 36 civilians but I am not sure they are all from the Chenna massacre. Most of them have gun wounds.
“Some of them, their families are already dead and they are asking to go to the funerals” even though they need treatment, he added.
– ‘Beyond reckoning’ –
The war has caused immense human suffering in Tigray and beyond, with UN officials warning that 400,000 people face famine-like conditions.
Tigrayan leaders said Monday that 150 people died of starvation in August and that one million “are at risk of fatal famine if they are prohibited from receiving life-saving aid within the next few days”.
Those figures could not be independently verified.
The TPLF has accused Abiy’s government of imposing an aid blockade, and the UN, the African Union and world powers like the United States have repeatedly called for expanded humanitarian access.
On Monday, Ethiopia’s peace minister Muferiat Kamil reiterated the government’s position that the rebels were to blame for obstructing aid.
“It’s TPLF who is choking the checkpoints, the humanitarian corridor, it’s not us,” she said.
The World Food Programme on Tuesday hailed the arrival of more than 100 trucks carrying food and other aid into Tigray, the first such convoy to arrive in two weeks.
“Although we have not yet been able to independently verify hunger-related deaths, we have received unconfirmed reports of deaths in displacement sites and we are gravely concerned regarding the life-threatening situation faced by millions of people in Tigray and neighbouring regions,” Saviano Abreu, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian coordination office, told AFP Wednesday.
“It is extremely worrying that some supplies have not been able to enter at all, including fuel, without which we are unable to continue our operations.”
He called for unimpeded access and warned that “the consequences of inaction are beyond reckoning”.
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