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Situation Report: The Mai-Kadra Massacre (Draft)
"Prime Minister Bolt," was his nickname back in the summer of 2018, already it seems like a lifetime ago. That was just after former military commander Abiy Ahmed became the head of the Ethiopian government. Named for Usain Bolt -- the famous Jamaican world record holding sprinter -- the new prime minister’s reforms and executive decisions came at a lightning pace, ranging from release of opposition political prisoners to new investment pouring into one of Africa’s most populous nations. Ahmed’s achievements led to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019; “... for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea." (nobel.org)
Today, Prime Minister “Bolt” is involved in another border conflict, this time between Ethiopia and Eritrea, only it’s the semi-autonomous state known as Tigray that’s being invaded. The Tigray government insists that its sworn enemy to the north, Eritrea, is sending in soldiers to assist the Ethiopian government to the south in an effort to clean out militants in the bush.
Late reports from Amnesty International indicate not a clearing, but a “cleansing;” “Amnesty International can today confirm that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the South West Zone of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region on the night of 9 November. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab has examined and digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers. It confirmed the images were recent and using
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satellite imagery, geolocated them to Mai-Kadra in western Tigray state (14.071008, 36.564681).” (amnesty.org)
The quotation itself comes from Deprose Muchena, the human right’s director for East and Southern Africa. The “evidence” is from third party sources interviewed by Amnesty International. One witness described the Ethiopian military unit involved following the massacre as the “Amhara Special Force .” With respect to that particular witness, a search of Twitter using the hashtag #tigray yields little if any evidence of the actual massacre. One troller, @natnasuhul, noted at the social media site;
“The @amnesty report was gross miscarriage of justice! Their only evidence were 'grainy videos of bodies' & 'witnesses' who heard from 'survivors' '. The REAL SURVIVORS who escaped the rampage & made it to Sudan refugee camp told Reuters #Amhara militiamen were the perps. #Tigray” (Twitter Inc.)
Suhul’s profile at Twitter indicates his residence is in the United States, far away from the action, and he has just over 1,200 followers. Suhul also appears to be an unreliable source for details related to the purported massacre at Mai-Kadra. Those particular witnesses, refugees, were interviewed by syndicated news agencies such as Reuters in the al-Fushqa refugee camp located 25 miles west of the border in Sudan. (Reuters) Suhul has also retweeted posts by others who claim to have first hand knowledge of the attack on the town south of Himora, in west Tigray.
None of these appear validated. The running transcript at another Reuters update reports that communication is down on the western front and media agencies are not allowed in. Still, it bases its findings on an UNHCR report of the refugee camps along the border with Sudan filling up;
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“ ‘They are coming with very, very little possessions and while most of them have actually come in in a healthy condition, we have had information on some who have been injured,’ UNHCR representative Axel Bisschop told reporters in a virtual briefing.”
(Reuters)
In spite of all the stories from third party sources, there is no photographic evidence of hacked up bodies in the town, nor any of those who did the hacking actually robbing and looting as “witnessed” by the refugees. No photos on Twitter or anywhere else. Even if there was, it would be difficult to validate the evidence without expert witnesses and bona fide news journalists on the scene. Characterized as the “Mai Kadra massacre,” the independent website Wikipedia reported;
“Two videos, which were analyzed by Amnesty International to prove that the massacre had taken place, show dozens of corpses with injuries caused by bladed weapons, like machetes. According to local media, up to 500 people may have been killed. Most of the victims were Amhara.” (wikipedia)
The footnote [2] links back to the Amnesty International site where the alleged atrocity is reported, but the videos are unavailable. Other footnotes at Wikipedia link to the same syndicated articles with unsubstantiated first-hand accounts by refugees who may not have been in the town at all, possibly inventing the stories to get food at the camp. The United States government also issued a blanket statement regarding the alleged massacre;
“ ‘We condemn the massacre of civilians in Mai-Kadra and strongly urge immediate steps to de-escalate and end conflict throughout the Tigray region,’ said Tibor Nagy, the top US diplomat for Africa, referring to a town where Amnesty International reported mass killings.” (internewscast)
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Nagy’s statement is also based on the Amnesty International report without verification that he had actually seen the videos. A visit to the assistant secretary’s website at the State Department shows no press release as indicated by the unnamed source at the internewscast website. In fact, that very press release concerning Mai-Kadra from Nagy came over the wire on Twitter, at the assistant secretary’s official channel. (Nagy, Twitter Inc.) Apparently, that social media internet tabloid appears to be the new official channel instead of the State Department website. As for the information flow itself, it is highly suspect that the evidence would be handed over to Amnesty International instead of some more formal agency, especially related to African affairs. That particular organization is literally toothless to make a difference in ongoing operations of a formal military engaged against insurgents in the field. By all accounts, the evidence, if it exists and can be verified, came by way of inexperience and sensationalism, instead of formal inquiry potential.
All told, the truth behind not just the claims made about the small village in western Tigray, but the objectives of the Ethiopian government in general with respect to the state, remain unclear and need to be seriously considered by the only organization with teeth to do something about it, the UN Security Council. Not a single resolution related to Ethiopia has been issued by the security council this year, which makes sense as the Tigray incursion is but weeks old. (un.org) Ethiopia was brought up briefly in a daily presser by the secretary-general’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, on November 9;
“The Secretary-General has also spoken with Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok of Sudan, in his capacity as Chairperson of IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development). He also spoke with the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, as Chair of the African Union. In those
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conversations, the Secretary‑General expressed the readiness of the UN to support IGAD and the African Union in any initiative to address the situation.” (un.org)
Dujarric also noted that Tigray has over 6,000 citizens infected with COVID-19 and is nearly at ground zero for the desert locust infestation. Curiously, Dujarric refers to the Tigray citizens as “people” and Tigray as a “region.” Does this suggest some hidden UN protocol agreement with Ethiopia about the independent, or semi-autonomous, status of the state? With respect to the alleged massacre, the UN Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet was more cautious than the US State Department assistant secretary;
“Although the UN rights chief noted that the details of the alleged atrocity reported by Amnesty International in southwest Tigray ‘have not yet been fully verified’, she urged a full inquiry.
‘If confirmed as having been deliberately carried out by a party to the current fighting, these killings of civilians would of course amount to war crimes’, she said. “ (news.un.org)
The relief agency for the UN also reports that roads in Tigray are closed and telephone wires have been cut, exacerbating the problem with lines of communication. Mai-Kadra, if true, may be an anomaly. If the proper agencies don’t act and act immediately, it may also be a harbinger for things to come. Bachelet warns it “will spiral totally out of control.”
Unless the Nobel Prize winner, Prime Minister Bolt, can do something to stop it.
References:
“Bolt,” Meseret, E., “Africa’s Youngest Leader…,” Akron Beacon Leader, 10 June 2018, Page A8
Nobel Peace Prize, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2019/abiy/facts/ Mai-Kadra,
@natnasuhul, https://twitter.com/natnaSuhul
Refugees, https://ca.reuters.com/article/instant-article/idCAKBN27T1OP UNHCR,
Nagy, Twitter, https://twitter.com/AsstSecStateAF/status/1327278066666770435
UN Security Council,
https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/resolutions-adopted-security-council-2020 UN Briefing, https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/db201109.doc.htm
Bachelet Statement, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/11/1077592
Lines of Communication, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/11/1077472
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Situation Report: The Mai-Kadra Massacre (Revision)
"Prime Minister Bolt," was his nickname back in the summer of 2018, already it seems like a lifetime ago. That was just after former military commander Abiy Ahmed became the head of the Ethiopian government. Named for Usain Bolt -- the famous Jamaican world record holding
sprinter -- the new prime minister’s reforms and executive decisions came at a lightning pace, ranging from release of opposition political prisoners to new investment pouring into one of Africa’s most populous nations. Ahmed’s achievements led to the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. In early November, the Nobel laureate launched a military offensive against the semi-autonomous northern state of Tigray, which borders on the former Ethiopian region of Eritrea, now an independent nation. That same week, scores of villagers in a small town just east of the Sudanese border were slaughtered in the most savage way, with firearms and machetes. Late reports from Amnesty International indicated not a clearing, but a “cleansing;” “Amnesty International can today confirm that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the South West Zone of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region on the night of 9 November. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab
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has examined and digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers. It confirmed the images were recent and using satellite imagery, geolocated them to Mai-Kadra in western Tigray state (14.071008, 36.564681).” (amnesty.org)
The quotation itself comes from Deprose Muchena, the human right’s director for East and Southern Africa. The “evidence” is from third party sources interviewed by Amnesty International. One witness described the Ethiopian military unit involved following the massacre as the “Amhara Special Force .”
Even as the Ethiopian forces gradually encircled the breakaway capital of Mekele, the perpetrators of the massacre were still at large. In the weeks that followed the initial reports of the Mai-Kudra incident, accusations flowed between the two warring factions as much as the blood spilled on the battlefield. The reports are unconfirmed. Each blamed the other for the atrocities in the small village. When the smoke cleared from the artillery, corpses began to be discovered in the usual shallow graves attributed to wartime civilian casualties. In at least one article that has since been deleted from its original source at press.et, the following unsubstantiated update was offered on 26 November;
“Eighteen bodies were found thrown in water well while the bodies of 57 people who were massacred had been uncovered from a nearby borehole, the report revealed. On Friday, additional 17 bodies were also found. The number is even expected to go higher when full assessments are finalized in the areas of central, Doro Erbata, Berket. A number of perpetrators of the genocide are said to shelter in Sudan Hashaba refugee camp. The provisional administration of Mai Kdara (sp) indicated that among the 60 suspected individuals, 17 individuals are found to be a direct participants in the Mai Kadra genocide.” (press.et)
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Other reports surfaced from
reporters who claim they were on the
scene and had sent out video of the
massacre. In the meantime, from late
November until the first week of
December, the Ethiopian army
marched on, gradually closing in on the Tigrayan capital from the north and from the south. At least one image that was included in reports from syndicated news sources such as Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France Presse, all showed long gas lines in Mekele just before the arrival of the “liberators.” (gulf-times)
The citizens with automobiles were more fortunate than the poor villagers who had to hike several miles, possibly several hundred miles, to the western border to cross into Sudan to settle in overcrowded refugee camps. As if the Mai-Kadra massacre, true or otherwise, wasn’t news enough to create international outrage, even the surge of thousands of women and children into the refugee camps still wasn’t enough to raise an outcry. The usual token official statements went out on social media, on Twitter, but received little response. PM Bolt was busy driving his troops in breaking the Olympic 100 meter dash to reach the capital to arrest and punish the rebels, the “traitors” who had run the Ethiopian government for twenty years.
Agence France Presse claimed it had gained exclusive access to Mai-Kadra in the first week of December. It’s findings were of “freshly dug mass graves and dozens of corpses still awaiting a grave lie abandoned in a roadside ditch, their exposed flesh rotting in the sun.” (Barrons) Characterized as a “contested narrative,” the French media couldn’t ferret out any more truth as
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who did the shooting and the hacking than was previously alleged. The evidence is real enough by the first week of December, but the guilty party has vanished into the smoke from the big guns.
The Addis Ababa regime has declared the operation complete, arrests made and mopping up the remnants of the resistance is in progress. The Northern Command deserters have returned to the Ethiopian army, some reports claim Mekele citizens are sitting at tables in front of coffee shops. The government in hiding says it’s all lies. Refugees are staying at the camps in Sudan in the meantime as international efforts are increasing to feed the women and kids caught in the crossfire. The world may never know who hacked up the villagers in Mai-Kadra, their bleeding, lifeless bodies left wherever they dropped, or tossed down a dark well. In a similar incident, on the other side of Africa, dozens of Nigerian farmers were found slaughtered, hacked up by yet another band of what the media calls “extremists,” “jihadists,” “militants.” All of those are soft, carefully crafted liberal media words for what they really are, just plain murderers.
Revised 04 December 2020
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