Warning – Some or most of the following videos contain graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.
Testimonies on the start of the Tigray war
Testimonies on the start of the war on Tigray (Video credit: EEPA)
Hates speeches and open calls for genocide against ethnic-Tigrayans in Ethiopia
On Jan 2, 2022, Ethiopia’s national TV EBC broadcast an Amhara-extremist’s explicit call for a genocide against Tigrayans. The former UC Davis professor Tilahun Yilma likens the Tigrayans to a “cancer” that should be completely removed or eradicated so it never comes back. “If even one cell survives, it will replicate and destroy [the host]”.
This is what we must do now. When we talk about cancer, in addition to surgery, the person is treated with chemicals and radiation. This is because if a single cancer cell is left untreated, that left single cancer cell will expand and affect the whole body and kill that person. Woyane is a cancer. Hence, no single Woyane should be left and we should a program to hunt and kill all Woyanes.
Tilahun Yilma, Professor Emeritus, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis | https://t.ly/azhg
“We will not rest until this enemy is exterminated. These people [Tigrayans] are the enemy of all Ethiopian people, these people are the enemy of the Oromo, these people are the enemy of Afar, Gambela, Somali.” Agegnehu Teshager, President of Amhara National Regional State
We will not rest until this enemy is exterminated. These people [Tigrayans] are the enemy of all Ethiopian people, these people are the enemy of the Oromo, these people are the enemy of Afar, Gambela, Somali.
Agegnehu Teshager, President of Amhara National Regional State
Ethiopia government-paid activist Seyoum Teshome says commitiing genocide is the only way to win the genocidal war Abiy Ahmed declared on Tigray.
Since each & every Tigrayan youth, just like curved cobblestone, has been raised to have the same mentality, tattooed the Woyane mentality, if you want to win, you have to identify & eliminate all the youth in Tigray.
Seyoum Teshome, former lecturer turned Ethiopia government-paid activist (translation by Jewergis)
In his genocidal speech, prominent and controversial evangelical pastor Dr. Wodajeneh Meharene says cutting off humanitarian aid to Tigray is key to winning the war on Tigray.
In order to win a war, humanitarian aid must be blocked.
Pastor Wedajeneh Meharene
On 17 Dec 2021, Ethiopia’s national television EBC shared a YouTube video of Daniel Kibret, social affairs advisor to PM Abiy Ahmed, making an open call for genocide against Tigrayans in Ethiopia. In the video titled ‘What is needed is not to understand Weyane but to wipe out Weyane‘, Daniel Kibret says “They should be erased and disappeared from historical records. A person who wants to study them should find nothing about them. Maybe he can find out about them by digging in the ground,” he said to applause. Translation of the speech available here
“Drain the sea to catch the rotten fish” ESAT’s explicit call for genocide against Tigrayans. On 6 Aug 2016, Ethiopian Sattelite Television anchor Mesay Kebede read a lengthy message calling on all Ethiopians to commit genocide against Tigrayans in Ethiopia. He said the only way to remove the TPLF is by wiping out the very people who support the party (Tigrayans). English translation of the call for genocide: https://t.ly/e6ur
A European Union envoy says Ethiopia’s leaders told him in closed-door talks earlier this year that “they are going to wipe out the Tigrayans for 100 years.” The envoy, Pekka Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, says such an aim “looks for us like ethnic cleansing.” Haavisto spoke in a question-and-answer session Tuesday, June 15 with a European Parliament committee. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, file) https://t.ly/-znn
“We must correct the notion of airstrikes on “civilians” in Tigray. There are no civilians in Tigray. What civilians? There is no such thing as civilians over there. They are all fighters, from the children to the adults.” Addisu Derebe, producer & presenter at Menelik Television
Massacres, sexual violence, and other atrocities
Eritrean PoWs admit to committing heinous atrocities on Tigrayan civilians. One of the POWs said he raped 30 girls/women and killed 40 Tigrayan civilians.
Video clips obtained by Panorama show the heinous atrocities committed by Amhara forces in Western Tigray https://t.ly/17PL
Ethiopia used a Turkish drone in a strike that killed nearly 60 civilians sheltered in a school in Dedebit | https://t.ly/iw7-
In Esret village, 60 kms from Mekelle, parents, mothers, sisters return home only to find their loved ones brutally massacred by the invading forces.
A graphic footage of the massacre in Debre Abay. Perpetrated by Ethiopian/ENDF soldiers, the massacre obtained wide coverage in the international media such as France 24 https://t.ly/RU9y and The Telegraph https://t.ly/jwWU
Axum Massacre
Work-in-progress
Mahbere Dego Massacre
Disturbing videos obtained by the BBC show the killing of unarmed civilians in Mahbere Dego, Tigray, by people dressed in Ethiopian army uniform.
Two years into the Mahbere Dego massacre, survivors and families of victims still waiting for justiceSome of the victims of the Mahbere Dego Massacre (compiled by Desta Haileselassie)
Abala Massacre
Hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans were massacred by Eritrean & local forces in Abala, Afar region, on December 24, 2021. Witnesses say at least 400 ethnic Tigrayans were massacred on that fateful day, collected and dumped in far-off craters with a bulldozer. They say the number could possibly rise to more than 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 now lives in the Derg-Ajen camp for IDPs on the outskirts of Mekelle, the Tigrayan 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 centre 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 centre of Mekane’ Kidusan. (Source: Al Jazeera)
Hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans were massacred by Eritrean & local forces in Abala, Afar region, on December 24, 2021. Witnesses say at least 400 ethnic Tigrayans were massacred on that fateful day and damped onto a landfill site by bulldozers. They say the number could possibly rise to more than 500.
Survivors of the massacre recount the atrocities they witnessed when Eritrean and local forces massacred, gang-raped, looted and arrest every Tigrayan they found in the town
Survivors of the massacre recount the atrocities they witnessed when Eritrean and local forces massacred, gang-raped, looted and arrest every Tigrayan they found in the town
Sky News has uncovered evidence of the mass rape of civilians by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers in the conflict in the province of Tigray. The Eritrean and Ethiopian government say they have a zero tolerance approach to sexual violence. Sky’s Africa correspondent John Sparks speaks to women who have been the victims of torture, rape and prolonged abuse. This report contains detailed testimony of sexual violence which some viewers may find upsetting. https://t.ly/fMfE
Arbitrary Mass Detentions
“All Tigrayans are considered to be TPLF supporters or spies.” Ethiopia detains thousands of Tigrayans under state of emergency. Fears of more such detentions rise after authorities order landlords to register tenants’ identities with police.
“All Tigrayans are considered to be TPLF supporters or spies.” Thousands of Tigrayans are being detained in Ethiopia as part of a government crackdown on suspected supporters of rebel forces. Rights groups say the mass arrests are ethnically motivated.
Tigrayan detained at Awash Arba concentration camp in the Afar region faced routine beatings and torture, with limited access to food and water. They were beaten with “heavy plastic sticks” and made to crawl on their stomachs along sharp gravel for about an hour. https://t.ly/POW8
Video showing ENDF/ Ethiopian soldiers beating and buttstroking a Tigrayan civilian before they finally shoot him dead. Some soldiers suggest that the boy is killed immediately while others suggest he suffer a bit longer before he is killed.
Ayder Hospital doctor (Dr. Binyam Tesfaye) speaks out about the atrocities he witnessed in Mekelle (and other towns in Tigray) when Ethiopian forces took control of the city | Interview date: 28 Feb 2020
Ethiopia state-owned media Walta labels Tigrayans as the ‘Biafrans of the North’. Ethiopia’s Biafra-like siege on Tigray is estimated to have killed more than 800,000 Tigrayans, mostly as a result of man-made starvation, lack of medical supplies as well as mass killings. Ethiopian officials admit to using a Biafra-like siege to starve Tigray.
On state-owned media, EBC, the victims of sexual violence visited by President Sahle-Work Zewde in Mekelle were “prostitutes” who showed up expecting to get paid 2500 Ethiopian Birr.
Ethiopia’s first reaction to widespread reports of sexual violence in Tigray was one of denial. On January 25, 2021, Muna Ahmed, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Women, Children and Youth told Ahadu Radio that “reports of sexual violence in Tigray are nothing more than rumors.” | “ከጥርጣሬ ውጭ እስከ አሁን ተጨባጭ የሆነ ነገር የለም” ወ/ሮ ሙና አህመድ በሴቶች፣ ህፃናት እና ወጣቶች ሚኒስቴር የሴቶች ዘርፍ ሚኒስቴር ዲኤታ አሐዱ ልሳን አመሻሽ (17-05-2013) | Source: Ahadu Radio
In a very rare instance, at a meeting on 8 Jan 2021 in Mekelle broadcast on ETV, a state TV channel, an Ethiopian/ ENDF soldier spoke of repeated abuses against women. “I was angry yesterday. Why does a woman get raped in Mekelle city? It wouldn’t be shocking if it happened during the war because it is not manageable and could be expected for such a thing to happen,” he said. “But women were raped yesterday and today when the local police and federal police are around. We need to communicate among ourselves and act together and strengthen our chain of command.” https://t.ly/Iu1-
Parents in Fredashum, Tigray, recount heinous atrocities committed by Eritrean forces in Fredashum, Tigray. Mr. Teklehaimanot Gebrearegawi, a resident of Tabia (village) Fredashum in Tigray, told the BBC that his 32-year-old son, Priest Abraha, was killed by Eritrean soldiers when he went to the nearby church the previous Christmas.
Mariam Shewito Massacre: Eritrean forces killed 400 civilians in Mariam Shewito locality and surrounding areas
