According to the local government, 120 civilians, including women, children, and elderly, were killed by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the village of Chenna, in the early days of September. The exact number of casualties is not yet known since some people are still reported as missing. The Tigrayan forces have already rejected the murder allegations claiming that they controlled the area for only a short period of time. Now that the area is in the hands of the national government again, local witnesses described the atrocities committed by the rebel forces against civilians as retaliation for the abuses suffered by the people in Tigray since the start of the war.
Violence in Tigray, the northernmost Ethiopian region, started in November 2020, when the Ethiopian National Defence Force (EDFN) began a military operation as a response to an alleged attack on a federal military camp by the TPLF. Since then, the violence escalated into a full-blown conflict that is now extending to the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar. Both the national government and the TPLF allegedly committed violations of humanitarian law such as indiscriminate shelling and targeting of civilians. The Chenna massacre is, in fact, only the last of the atrocities committed in this civil war.
Following the government’s claims, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, which is an independent body, is investigating the Chenna massacre. Meanwhile, the UN and the international community are calling for an immediate ceasefire to this war that has already caused the displacement and the killings of thousands of people.
Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tigray-abuses-amhara-96fda9f5bd3b4d76fe8f728eb343424f
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/4/six-months-of-ethiopias-tigray-conflict-a-timeline
Author: Martina Apicella; Editor: Aleksandra Krol
