Hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans were massacred by Eritrean and local forces in Abala, Ethiopia’s Afar Region, on December 24, 2021. Witnesses interviewed by Dimtsi Weyane TV reported that at least 400 ethnic Tigrayans were killed that day. According to their accounts, the victims’ bodies were collected using a bulldozer and dumped into large craters away from the town. The witnesses believe the death toll may have exceeded 500.

Hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans were massacred by Eritrean and local forces in Abala, in Ethiopia’s Afar region, on December 24, 2021. Witnesses say that at least 400 ethnic Tigrayans were killed that day. According to their accounts, the victims’ bodies were collected with a bulldozer and dumped into distant craters. They believe the death toll could exceed 500.

They [soldiers] protected civilians of other ethnicities and erased the Tigrayans … They killed, gang-raped, looted and arrested every Tigrayan they found in the town. Only if you knew an Afar to either hide you or help you escape, could you be saved … They exterminated us all. No Tigrayans are left now in the town. They committed genocide against us.

— Desta who lives in the Derg-Ajen camp for IDPs on the outskirts of Mekelle, Tigray’s capital (Source: Al Jazeera)

They came to our neighbourhood at midday as I was baking injera in the back yard … They shot my husband and 11 other Tigrayan neighbours they found around. Among them were four boys under the age of five, killed alongside their parents.

— Asay Teka, another survivor from the IDP center of Lemlem (Source: Al Jazeera)

They were barging into houses, looting and gang-raping girls as young as nine.

Hareg Tekelu, another resident of the IDP center of Mekane’ Kidusan (Source: Al Jazeera)

Survivors of the massacre recount the atrocities they witnessed when Eritrean and local forces massacred civilians, carried out gang rapes, looted property, and arrested Tigrayans throughout the town.
Survivors of the massacre recount the atrocities they witnessed as Eritrean and local forces massacred civilians, carried out gang rapes, looted property, and arrested every Tigrayan they found in the town.

Read more:

‘Ethnic cleansing’: Ethiopian allies accused of Abala massacre, Al Jazeera English, 25 Feb 2022