The images are crude and leave no room for interpretation. It is violence, it is slaughter, it is war. “Look at that… it’s moving, it’s still alive. Don’t be a sissy, shoot, shoot, kill him “. It is just one of the phrases shouted between the sharp blows in a gruesome video about the slaughter in the Tigray of which we publish some frames here.
Ethiopia, famine threatens Tigray. The army hunts down patriotic militias
by Pietro Del Re
It’s hard to say when and where the video was shot, but the brutality of the images doesn’t need comments or captions. Those who spread them claim that they are the mountains around Mai Harmaz, a village in the Debre Abbay region. The massacre allegedly took place in early January, during the Orthodox Christmas celebrations.
Ethiopia, the Axum massacre: Amnesty denounces the massacre of hundreds of civilians by Asmara
In the first video, about twenty soldiers wearing Ethiopian army uniforms gather a group of civilians, all male and young, in a clearing. First they sit and question them, they speak Amharic. Then they push them to go towards a cliff. There, mass, cold execution takes place.
In the other videos you can see the military making their way with Kalashnikovs among the corpses. There are at least thirty. With their weapons they rage on those already tortured bodies, between the red earth and the dried blood. Then they roll them down the embankment. “Too bad we don’t have fuel (to burn corpses, ed) ”Grumbles a soldier as he walks away.
Crisis Ethiopia, Amnesty denounces massacre in Tigray. UN: “Possible war crimes”
by Raffaella Scuderi
As in other videos released in recent days, the area would always be that of Axum, a symbolic place where mosques and other religious sites dear to Tigrinis were also attacked. This is the reality of the conflict that broke out in November between the militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray, Tplf, and the Ethiopian army, flanked by the Eritrean one and the Amhara militia.
International pressures
From Addis Ababa, President Abiy Ahmed Ali had assured that every military operation in the region, inhabited by about six million people, had been over for some time. He said he had regained control of it after the clashes with the Tigrinya minority. In recent days he has returned to reject the accusations and deny that the repression continues.
Reports from the United Nations and humanitarian organizations say otherwise, however. They speak of bombing of civilians, violations of human rights on an ethnic and religious basis, rape and atrocities of all kinds. At the UN Security Council, which met at the beginning of March, the formal request to stop all violence was thwarted only by China, Russia and India, who would like to limit themselves to the humanitarian question, without addressing any criticism of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian government made the only step forward this week by asking for and obtaining the availability of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, for a joint investigation into the conflict. It is only a formal request, however, and the times have not been established.
For four months, the United States and the European Commission have been asking for clarity. President Biden said he was “severely concerned about the situation in Tigray” back in November and last week Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke explicitly of “ethnic cleansing”. Full convergence with the European institutions: the situation is “out of control”, said Pekka Haavisto, envoy of the EU High Representative after the visit to Ethiopia. In January, European diplomacy asked for immediate access for international observers, on pain of blocking the 88 million euros promised to Ethiopia.
Italian interests
Vague, however, is the response of Italian diplomacy. The Farnesina confirms that the latest official statement on the Tigray dates back to the beginning of February. In that note, Deputy Minister Emanuela Del Re merely said she was concerned about the crisis and rejoiced with the Ethiopians for access to humanitarian workers, granted in the few areas with refugee camps.
The government of Abiy Ahmed and the Italian one signed a military cooperation agreement in 2019, effective from August 2020. The agreement also provides for “activities in the sector of military products and equipment” as well as exchanges, training and research in the field of Defense. On the other hand, Ethiopia is “the fifth destination market for Italian exports to sub-Saharan Africa”, reads the Farnesina website, with a market share of 4 percent, “much higher than that of the main competitors Europeans “.
The most significant Italian investment is linked to the Great Renaissance dam (Gerd), destined to become the largest dam on the continent. The project is quite controversial and has created a lot of tensions between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt for the management of the Nile waters. Construction began in 2011 and was entrusted to Salini Impregilo or “Webuild”. The work has already cost more than four billion dollars.
The media blackout
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian army continues to occupy and dismantle the health care facilities for the Tigrinya population, already tested by the pandemic. Doctors Without Borders, MSF, confirmed this this week. Of the hundred garrisons in the region, only thirteen would remain in operation and armed soldiers would also have requisitioned ambulances to prevent rescue in the most remote areas.
The accusations against President Abiy Ahmed – Nobel laureate in 2019 for peace with Eritrea, now his ally – weigh even more because access to journalists in the area has been prohibited. The media now call that of the Tigray the war without photos, the war without photos. The media blackout also applies to the few humanitarian workers present, those who assist families and displaced people fleeing to Sudan, more than 45,000 according to the United Nations. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees recalls that Tigray already hosted about one hundred thousand Eritrean refugees.
Ethiopians have repeatedly blamed the TPLF militants for spreading false information or staging for international support, but refuting that video is virtually impossible. The corpses are real and everything points to the Tigray. Whoever has carried out that violence must answer for it, must give an explanation, tell the truth.
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