Ethiopia Suspected of Massacres in Tigray Province – NRK Urix – Foreign News and Documentaries

In early March, five videos related to the executions began circulating on social media. Now they are analyzed by the BBC in collaboration with journalists from Bellingcat and Newsy.

In one video, a soldier is seen visiting a group of about 25 prisoners. All the prisoners are dressed in civilian clothes. One of them stands out with a red shirt and a large white handkerchief.

In two of the other videos, a small group of prisoners is led off a cliff. The man in the red shirt is one of them.

– Get him up!

The photographer comments on what happens along the way.

– Make him get up and shoot that jerk, yell at a fellow soldier.

– Finish at the bottom of the cliff. I wish we could fill in gasoline and let them burn.

The photographer himself helps to photograph someone who no longer has a life. Many are already on the edge of the cliff. They rise by the legs and incline even further down the hill.

– As everyone can see, these are the corpses of Woyane, says the soldier as a filmmaker.

“Woyane” refers to the repeated revolts of the Tigray province against the central government in Ethiopia, from 1943 to the present.

From rebellion to power and vice versa

The soldiers speak as if the plainclothes victims belonged to the TPLF, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray.

It was formed in 1975 and eventually built an army of tens of thousands of soldiers who fought against the Soviet-backed government.

From 1991 to 2018, the TPLF sat down with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia.

In 2018, they were expelled from an alliance between the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, under the leadership of Prime Minister Ahmed.

Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. The explanatory memorandum concerned the peace agreement with neighboring Eritrea and the release of political prisoners in his home country.

But there was no peace, especially with the rulers of the Tigray province. Last fall, they held regional elections that the Prime Minister did not support.

TPLF wants more autonomy.

In November, the TPLF attacked the main base of government forces in the north, supposedly to prevent them from being used against the Tigray leaders.

The prime minister deployed both the army and the air force to take control of the regional capital, Mekele. Forces from neighboring Eritrea supported government forces.

Since then, there have been riots. In an attack on the city of Aksum on November 28 and 29, several hundred people were killed. Eyewitnesses said Eritrean soldiers also participated.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said that he will disarm and arrest the TPLF leaders. Attempts to negotiate peace have been unsuccessful.

The government soldiers are behind this

Both parties accuse each other of abuse. But the responsibility for the misdeeds in the videos seems clear.

The media that have examined the images agree on where it took place and who the soldiers are. They speak Ahmaris Samharic, the language spoken by most people in the Ethiopian army.

Soldiers wear uniforms with flags and stripes with names like in the government army, the Ethiopian Defense Force (ENDF).

The execution took place a few kilometers from Mahbere Dego, in the northern province of Tigray. This is documented by comparing the landscape in the videos with satellite photos and topographic maps of the area.

But it is unclear whether someone higher up in the Ethiopian defense had cleared the action.

– Does not stand as evidence

The BBC has asked the Ethiopian authorities for comment. They are open to “independent investigation”. But they don’t accept the videos as proof.

– Publications and complaints on social networks cannot be used as evidence, it is said in a statement from the authorities.