Amnesty International (AI) says scores of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest zone of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region on 9 November.
The rights organisation said in a statement that its Crisis Evidence Lab had examined and digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.
‘We have confirmed the massacre of a very large number of civilians, who appear to have been day labourers in no way involved in the ongoing military offensive’, the statement quoted AI’s Director for East and Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena, as saying.
‘This is a horrific tragedy whose true extent only time will tell as communication in Tigray remains shut down’.
‘The government must restore all communication to Tigray as an act of accountability and transparency for its military operations in the region, as well as ensure unfettered access to humanitarian organisations and human rights monitors.
‘Amnesty International will regardless continue to use all means available to document and expose violations by all parties to the conflict’.
The rights organisation said it had spoken to witnesses, who were providing food and other supplies to the Ethiopian Defense Forces (EDF).
People who saw the dead bodies, according to Amnesty International, said that they had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes.
‘Those wounded told me they were attacked with machetes, axes and knives. You can also tell from the wounds that those who died were attacked by sharp objects. It is horrible and I am really sad that I witnessed this in my life’, the organisation quoted one distraught witness as saying.
The organisation said survivors of the massacre told them that they were attacked by members of Tigray Special Police Force and other TPLF members.
On 4 November, 2020, the country’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered the Ethiopian Defence Forces (EDF) to engage with the Tigray Regional Paramilitary Police and militia loyal to the TPLF.
Ahmed gave the order in response to multiple attacks by the Tigray security forces on the EDF North Command base in Mekelle and other military camps in Tigray Region.
Since the start of the conflict, there have been armed confrontations between federal forces on one side and the Tigray regional forces on the other side.
Source: Amnesty International
Photo source: Richard Potts
