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With the gradual reestablishment of communications in parts of the war-ravaged Tigray region in Ethiopia, survivors and residents of the city of Mai Kadra have been able to share heartbreaking accounts of the slaughter of civilians more than a month ago, the worst atrocity confirmed in a week. long conflict between government forces and the now fugitive regional government.
On November 12, almost two weeks after the fighting began in the northern region, an Amnesty International investigation cited witnesses who claimed that forces linked to the beleaguered Tigray Popular Liberation Front (TPLF) had wreaked havoc on the small town. city for three days. earlier.
Armed with blunt objects such as machetes and knives, the attackers beat and stabbed residents to death, witnesses told Amnesty, which said it could confirm “the massacre of a large number of civilians” after examining and verifying gruesome photographs and videos of the scene. .
Days later, a preliminary investigation by a government-appointed rights watchdog indicated that there may be up to 600 victims, and said the killings were carried out by a local youth group with the support of other Tigray civilians, police and militias. .
The Mai Kadra massacre is the worst known attack against civilians during the conflict [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]
Home to up to 45,000 people from Tigrayan, Amhara and other ethnic origins, Mai Kadra had been under the control of the TPLF until its forces withdrew from the city a day after the massacre when Ethiopian government troops advanced into western Tigray .
Despite the Ethiopian government’s capture of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, on 28 November, fighting between the TPLF and Ethiopian army units is believed to continue in parts of rural Tigray. Much of the region remains inaccessible to journalists and humanitarian workers, making it difficult to verify claims from all sides and leaving observers in fear that more war crimes could still be discovered.
The federal government imposed a communications cutoff when it began its military operation on November 4, but Mai Kadra has recovered her telephone services for just over a week. Al Jazeera has been able to communicate with a total of six survivors, witnesses and relatives of the victims who were in Mai Kadra on 9 November and said the bloodshed continued unabated for almost 24 hours.
‘I thought it was the end’
Solomon Chaklu said that he had come to Mai Kadra from Dansha city to inspect a vehicle that he intended to purchase.
“Police and TPLF youth militias scoured the city looking for non-Tigrayans to kill,” Solomon told Al Jazeera by phone. “Around 3 in the afternoon, the police and the youths with machetes came to the house where we were hiding,” he said.
“They dragged me outside, where I saw maybe 20 or 30 bodies of dying or dead people. I thought it was the end for me. “
The Ethiopian government maintains that a TPLF-supported Tigrayan youth militia nicknamed “Samri” targeted men like Solomon and Ferede, who are of Amhara ethnic descent. There have been long-standing tensions between the Tigrayans and Amhara and members of the militia from the neighboring Amhara region of Tigray have participated in the fight against TPLF forces alongside the Ethiopian army.
Solomon said that he, his friend Ferede Leu and a third man were asked to present identification cards identifying their ethnic group. The third man was left alone after he pleaded for his life in Tigrinya, the language of the attackers, according to Solomon.
“They tried to kill me,” he said. “I was surrounded by four men and one of them hit me on the head and back with his machete. I remember the others laughing as they looked at him. “
When he regained consciousness, Solomon was informed that his friend, Ferede, had been beaten to death. He himself was bleeding profusely and the next day he was taken to Gonder city hospital, some 260 kilometers away. Discharged after two weeks, he is currently recovering from multiple machete blows and a broken leg at his home in Dansha.
“Men turned into bloodthirsty beasts that day,” he said.
Massacre survivors recovering at Gondar University Hospital in Gondar [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]‘We can still hear the horrible sounds’
Ethiopian state media reported that the massacre was the result of the surviving TPLF units taking their frustration out on the city’s residents after being defeated in battles with the Ethiopian army.
Hadas Mezgebu, whose husband of 17 years was killed in front of the family’s home in Mai Kadra, said she believed the attackers “had planned this for days.”
“They had asked to see people’s identity cards. When the killings started, they knew which homes to go to. They knew my husband was Amhara. “
On the day of the murders, Tilahun Getnet says that she hid in the home of her half brother, Tebekaw Zewdu, who had lived in Mai Kadra for almost 30 years.
“We heard that the Samri gang was not targeting women and children, so we were hiding just above the roof of my brother’s house for hours,” Tilahun said by phone. “They searched the house twice and left after finding my brother’s wife and children.”
But the machete-wielding killers returned for a third search of the house and were frustrated when they couldn’t locate 37-year-old Tebekaw. They began threatening his wife and son.
“When she refused to reveal where her husband was hiding, they arrested her 11-year-old son and threatened to kill him if she did not reveal her husband’s whereabouts. It was then that my brother came out of hiding. They killed him with machetes there, in front of his wife and son, who shouted for mercy ”.
Tilahun said her half brother’s family moved from Mai Kadra. “We can still hear the horrible sounds of that day when we dream at night.”
A member of an Amhara militia photographed in Mai Kadra on November 21 [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]Reports of targeted tigrayans
Thousands of people are believed to have died since fighting began in Tigray on November 4, and the United Nations said an estimated one million people have been displaced across the region, in addition to the nearly 50,000 who have fled to the neighboring Sudan.
In Sudanese refugee camps, several Tigray refugees have told reporters that they escaped after Ethiopian federal forces and members of an Amhara militia killed Tigray civilians in Mai Kadra. Some said they had seen hundreds of bodies and described scenes of ethnically motivated attacks, including killings with knives and beatings.
Amid the divergences, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael has dismissed allegations about his forces’ involvement in mass killings as “unfounded”, while Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said federal forces do not they have killed a single civilian during their operation against the TPLF.
When investigated by Al Jazeera, TPLF official Fesseha Tessema said the group is aware of the killings involving Tigrayan victims. “The heinous crime committed against the Tigrayans in Mai Kadra is just one of the similar crimes that should be investigated by an international body,” he said.
Earlier this week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said there is “an urgent need” for independent monitoring of the events in Tigray, warning that the situation is “extremely worrying and volatile.” “It is spiraling out of control, with a terrible impact on civilians.”
Amnesty, meanwhile, agrees that there may be additional atrocity victims between people of both ethnicities during the fighting, but its Ethiopian lead investigator said the organization has no doubts about who was behind the 9 November killings.
“We have had follow-up interviews with the victims, who say that the killers received support [TPLF] militia, ”Fisseha Tekle, Amnesty Ethiopia’s principal investigator, told Al Jazeera. “Groups of young men were armed with axes, machetes and knives and told to go from house to house in search of Amhara men.”
As Ethiopian officials say the conflict is subsiding and reject what they describe as external “interference,” the United Nations continues to pressure the government to grant access to people in war-torn areas to provide much-needed humanitarian aid.
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