Addis Ababa, Nov. 13, (dpa/GNA) – Amnesty International on Thursday confirmed reports of a massacre in the town of May Cadera in northern Ethiopia on November 9, where “scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death.”
The civilian victims “appear to have been day labourers in no way involved in the ongoing military offensive” in the restive Tigray region, where the town is located, said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.
While the organization was not yet able to identify those responsible for the attack, witnesses spoke of forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs the region and has been feuding with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed since he came to power in 2018.
Ahmed said earlier that the TPLF had carried out executions of government soldiers in northern Ethiopia.
He said the army had retaken the town of Shire in the Tigray region and found “bodies of troops that were tied up and executed,” adding that “the cruelty is heartbreaking.”
Abiy, who made the remarks on Twitter, did not give any details as to the number of casualties.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s parliament voted to remove the immunity from prosecution held by 39 top Tigray officials.
Lawmakers voted to remove the immunity of politicians including regional President Debretsion Gebremichael for “bearing arms and revolting, attacking the federal army and other related crimes.”
According to the police, 242 TPLF “agents” were arrested in Addis Ababa over the past few days for conducting “activities in support of the TPLF.” No further explanation was given.
Later on Thursday, police announced that arrest warrants had been issued for 64 top officials in the TPFL and 32 of its members.
The United Nations, the African Union and the international community have expressed concern that Ethiopia could descend into full-blown civil war after Abiy last week ordered a curfew and sent soldiers in to put down an alleged uprising by the TPLF.
The government said earlier this week its forces had killed some 500 TPLF fighters. Refugees from the conflict are already streaming over the border into Sudan to seek shelter, with the UN refugee agency UNHCR estimating that 7,000 have already arrived there.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 200,000 internally displaced people and refugees already live in the Tigray region.
Aid workers have warned of the possibility of a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia.
Matthias Spaeth, country director of aid organization Welthungerhilfe in Ethiopia, told dpa that the Tigray region is cut off from supply routes and “there are more than 600,000 chronically malnourished people that one cannot reach now.”
“One of the biggest worries in the country is that … the conflict in Tigray will spill over into other regions,” he added.
It could only be speculated were the most heavy fighting was taking place, Spaeth said, emphasizing: “We are assuming the worst.”
GNA