BY TAMERU REGASA
ADDIS ABABA – A renowned journalist and writer Jeff Pearce made a direct report of the Mai-Kadra Massacre where over 1,500 ethnic Amharas were killed by TPLF-associated criminal youth group and local militia last November and exposed the global media’s shockingly little attention.
In a report he made in interviewing victims and survivors of the attack Pearce stated that TPLF-affiliated criminal group, ‘Samri’ committed the targeted killings of ethnic Amharas and beheading them in the streets and stabbing them in their neck with knives.
Citing Gondar University’s research that the area is home to many young job seekers living in cohabitation and this fact contributed to the alarming death toll orchestrated by Tigray Special Forces and members of the ‘Samri’. The Western global media does not perceive Mai Kadra differently from other small towns in the country and only Amnesty International has given some coverage about the atrocities.
Pearce, however, stressed that Amnesty tried to present the massacre as customarily communal violence and make an alleged report about the involvement of Amhara Special Forces with a view to presenting all sides as victims of the violence. “While perpetrators of the massacre are clearly identified by the victims, the international community’s silence to this grave brutality is sorrowful.”
Expressing his testimony of communal graves, the writer indicated that Mai Kadra Massacre is committed to meet a certain political goal in a well-planned and coordinated manner and the damage is beyond mercy.
Pearce interviewed some survivors and underscored that the act of the terrorist group is generally ethnic cleansing.
One of the survivors of the attack told him that Tigray Special Forces and militia were beating defenseless people and beheading them in the streets. Those making an attempt to escape were indiscriminately shot and killed and the area was highly guarded by Tigray militia so that no one could escape from the siege.
Another survivor stated that the group began the attack at a locality known as GinbSefer, “When I got there they already attacking civilians through using machetes, Knives and similar things to kill, I was heading to my home passing by and sow it and walk to escape myself, but one of them hit me in my neck, then break my two front teeth.”
Some Tigrayan militia and TPLF Special Forces gave cover to attack on the people by dragging them from their homes.
“First the group hit me with an axe on my forehead, then I lost my consciousness and I woke up around 8 P.M. in the middle of the street,” the third survivor recalled.
“I started to notice that there was a gathering in which they were taking orders on how they were going to keep attacking, then I heard one of them giving orders, saying “ Do not kill either Wolaita or Oromo, but kill all the Amharas!”.
By the same token, a woman who lost her husband by the attack said that her husband and men were killed when they made an attempt to protect the women from TPLF’s atrocities.
The Ethiopian Herald August 19/2021
