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Local officials in the Amhara region said the victims were “innocent farmers” and they feared that the death toll might be higher.
Local officials in Ethiopia accused the Tigray army of killing about 120 civilians in a village in the Amhara region of the country.
According to Dabat local chief executive Sewnet Wubalem and spokesperson Chalachew Dagnew of the nearby city of Gondar, told Reuters on Wednesday that the killing in the village of Chenna near Dabat town took place in early September.
“So far, we have found 120 bodies. They are all innocent farmers. But we think the number may be higher. Some people are missing,” Sewnet said.
Mulugta Melesa, director of Dabat Hospital, told AFP, “125 people died in Chenna Village…I saw the mass graves with my own eyes.”
Mulugeta added that residents “are still searching for bodies in the area and counting is still ongoing.”
Chalachew, spokesperson for the city of Gondar, also said that he had visited the cemetery in the village and that among the dead were children, women and the elderly.
Reuters quoted him as saying that the killing occurred during the “short presence” of the Tigray army in the area, which is now under the control of the Ethiopian Federal Army.
Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigrayan force, did not immediately answer questions.
He had previously told news organizations that the Tigray army did not target civilians when fighting in the Amhara and Afar areas of Ethiopia, but in recent days many witnesses have claimed otherwise.
Since the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to replace the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), northern Ethiopia has been suffering from conflicts, he said. It was in response to the TPLF’s attack on the barracks. TPLF, which has dominated national politics before Abi came to power in 2018, stated that the federal army and its allies launched a “coordinated attack” against him.
Although the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy promised to win quickly, the fighting continues, with countless reports of massacres and atrocities, including rapes and extrajudicial executions, and hundreds of thousands Suffer a famine.
June, in a Amazing transformation During the conflict, the Tigray army regained the capital of Tigray, Meckler, and the federal army basically retreated.
Since then, Tigray’s army has launched an offensive into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, causing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and triggering allegations of summary executions and indiscriminate injuries.
The Tigray army denied these allegations, insisting that they were only trying to break what they said was the humanitarian blockade of Tigray and prevent the regrouping of pro-government forces.
The local chief executive Seunnet told AFP that the residents of Chenna reported that the Tigray army took control of the village in late August, and then fighting broke out with pro-government forces in early September.
He claimed that Tigray’s army subsequently shot and killed civilians for several days in early September and then retreated.
At least some of the wounded were taken to the University Hospital in Gondar City.
“The bodies will not come here, but there are some wounded civilians here,” said Ashenafi Tazebew, deputy director of Gondar Hospital.
“We received nearly 35, 36 civilians, but I’m not sure if they are all from the Kinna massacre. Most of them have gunshot wounds,” he said.
“Some of them, their family members have passed away, and they asked to attend the funeral,” even if they need treatment, he added.
The United Nations, the United States and other countries are urging an immediate ceasefire and negotiate an end to the war that killed thousands of people in Africa’s second most populous country.
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