By Siyanne Mekonnen @Siyaanne
Addis Abeba, February 26/2021 – Amnesty International has compiled evidence based harrowing report on series of attacks that took place in Axum city in Tigray regional state and one of the most sacred places for followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Twahdo Church, and one of the sites of Ethiopia’s ancient civilization. The report detailed what took place over ten days between 19 and 29 November 2020, just a few weeks after the ongoing armed conflict between Ethiopia’s federal government and forces allied with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) erupted, and more specifically “over an approximately 24-hour period on 28-29 November.”
Amnesty’s report is based on the accounts of 41 witnesses and survivors of the massacre in addition to 20 other people with knowledge relevant to the situation. The report said “Eritrean troops’ massacre of hundreds of Axum civilians may amount to crime against humanity.”
Corroborating the seriousness of the report, Daniel Bekele, chief Commissioner of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said, “amnesty findings should be taken very seriously, and it would be a useful contribution for an ongoing investigation by EHRC throughout the Tigray region including Axum.” The EHRC also said while it has not finalized its investigation, “preliminary findings indicate the killing of an, as yet, unknown number of civilians by Eritrean soldiers in the city of Axum in retaliation for an earlier attack by TPLF soldiers who were joined by a small number of local residents. EHRC has also learned the attack was carried out by Eritrean soldiers after the TPLF soldiers left the area. EHRC is also investigating allegations of shelling in multiple places across Tigray region.”
“The evidence is compelling and points to a chilling conclusion. Ethiopian and Eritrean troops carried out multiple war crimes in their offensive to take control of Axum. Above and beyond that, Eritrean troops went on a rampage and systematically killed hundreds of civilians in cold blood, which appears to constitute crimes against humanity,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
“This atrocity ranks among the worst documented so far in this conflict. Besides the soaring death toll, Axum’s residents were plunged into days of collective trauma amid violence, mourning and mass burials.”
Massacre haunts Ethiopia’s sacred city of Axum
According to Amnesty, on 28 and 29 November, Eritrean soldiers deliberately shot civilians on the street including those who tried to remove bodies from the street after the killings. They carried out systematic house-to-house searches, extrajudicially executing men and boys as a retaliation for an earlier attack by a small number of local militiamen, joined by local residents armed with sticks and stones as stated in the report.
“She had three kids. Two of them ran but the third was a little kid [she] carried on her back. He was killed with her.”
Eyewitness
Indiscriminate shelling of Axum by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers began 10 days before the massacre, followed by Eritrean forces engaging in extrajudicial executions and engaged in widespread looting according to witness accounts. A man said he saw a woman and her infant child killed when artillery shells fell near the woman’s house, which was located close to the Atse Menelik high school. “She was outside the compound and moving, trying to find a safe place,” he recalled. “Then [the] shell fell on her. She had three kids. Two of them ran but the third was a little kid [she] carried on her back. He was killed with her.”
When the shelling finished, Ethiopian and Eritrean forces entered Axum together. Eritrean soldiers went home to home in search of militias or anyone with a gun. The killing of men suspected of being affiliated with TPLF were based on ‘slightest possible clues’ like pictures of TPLF leaders on their phones or pieces of clothing such as shirit [a sarong-like wrap commonly associated with TPLF fighters] and camouflage shirts. None of the witnesses to whom Amnesty International spoke said that there was any armed resistance to the attack. “They didn’t face any TPLF fighters; that’s why they took control of the city within a day.”
On November 28, TPLF fighters and/or pro-TPLF militia attacked the Eritrean position at Mai Koho, a mountain, located just east of the Axum Tsion St Mary Church. The group of assailants did not exceed 50-80 men armed with guns according to witnesses. The offensive received local support where some local youth joined the fight with improvised weapons, such as knives, sticks, and stones or bringing food to the fighters and an even larger number cheered in support.
A 26-year-old man who participated in the attack said “We expected that TPLF soldiers might come fight the Eritreans but it wasn’t them. We heard it was some militiamen. We wanted to protect our city so we attempted to defend it especially from Eritrean soldiers … The Eritrean soldiers were organized. They knew how to shoot and they had radios, communications. Even before we started fighting with them, they killed with snipers and Bren [machine guns] … I didn’t have a gun, just a stick.”
