Hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans were massacred by Ethiopian, Eritrean & local Afar forces in Abala, Afar region, on December 24, 2021. Witnesses, interviewed by Dimtsi Weyane TV, say at least 400 ethnic Tigrayans were massacred on that fateful day, and their bodies were 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)
Read more:
‘Ethnic cleansing’: Ethiopian allies accused of Abala massacre, Al Jazeera English, 25 Feb 2022