Hundreds of men massacred in Tigray site, says Amnesty

HUNDREDS of civilians in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region were methodically hunted down and killed at one of the country’s holiest sites by soldiers from Eritrea, a report has found.

Amnesty International claims that Eritrean soldiers converged on residential areas of Axum on Nov 28 last year, with orders to immediately gun down males of fighting age.

Knocking on doors and breaking down others, scores were killed in front of their families, the human rights group alleges. Soldiers also targeted those they encountered as they rode through the city’s streets on tanks.

Included in the 25-page report is testimony from more than 40 witnesses of the massacre.

“I saw a lot of dead on the street,” a witness is quoted as saying. “Even my uncle’s family. Six of his family members were killed. This was in the middle of the city.”

Ethiopia’s war in Tigray began on Nov 4 and resulted in Ethiopian and allied Eritrean soldiers ousting forces loyal to the rebellious Tigray regional government from the city Mekelle after weeks of brutal fighting.

The war has left thousands dead and more than two million displaced.

Despite claims by Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize winning prime minister, that his forces had taken precautions to prevent civilian casualties, mounting reports implicate them in extrajudicial killings, indiscriminate shelling and rapes.

Satellite imagery obtained by Amnesty International reveals areas of freshly dug earth in church compounds and appears consistent with mass graves. The bodies of 450 people were said to have been buried at just one of the churches. A survivor had told the Associated Press that 800 were killed.