Forced assimilation, killing and destruction in Southern Tigray

By Gebremeskel Hailu

The occupation of rural areas in South Tigray by Amhara forces since October 2022 has been accompanied by significant human rights violations and widespread suffering among the local population, including mass killings of civilians, dehumanisation, deprivation of means of survival and brutal assimilation of communities into an Amhara identity. This field note aims to shed light on the harrowing experiences of the residents of the occupied territories, based on firsthand observations and testimonies of survivors and victims. 

Impression from the villages of Ofla district 

I recently visited several villages in the rural areas of Southern Tigray which have been under Amhara occupation since October 2022. My visit of two weeks took place mostly in the villages of Ofla district, following the withdrawal of the Amhara forces who had occupied forces and subjugated much of Southern Tigray. This change came nearly two years after the signing of the Pretoria Agreement. I particularly visited five villages: Fala, Guara, Lat, Fikrewolda, and Wenberet.  I have talked to more than 60 residents, including survivors, eye witnesses and victims from all sections of the society comprising men and women, the young and the elderly, religious leaders and teachers who endured the two years long agony imposed by the occupying forces. What I witnessed were some of the least known yet most horrific stories of human suffering. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would have struggled to believe the accounts.

In the village of Fala alone, I recorded the names and identities of 67 civilians murdered by Amhara forces during the early two days of their arrival (October 16 — 18, 2022). Residents told me that the killings were savage: victims were forced to open their mouths so that the occupiers could shoot them through the head. Family members were prohibited from burying their loved ones for up to a month. The survivors and witnesses I spoke to believe that the crimes were committed with the intention to dehumanise them, instil fear and thereby expedite the assimilation process into Amhara identity. 

 Some eye witnesses told me the main method of killing in the villages was gathering individuals through home-to-home search, ordering them to line up and shooting them by multiple bullets fired from several directions. For example, in Adi-abso, a small locality in Fala, on 16 October 2022, the occupying forces gathered 21 civilians through home-to-home search, under the false pretence that they wanted them to carry wounded soldiers. They then took them to a field where thousands of soldiers were situated and ordered them to to line up and executed them by multiple gunshots in front of the military commands. They watched the bodies for weeks until it decomposed. The remains were mass-buried weeks later near the place they were shot dead.  The witnesses recalled, from among those killed, the body of Tadesse Bayu was eaten by a hyena. Several were killed by beating. For instance, in Adi-abso, Derbew Debesay and Shumey Fantaye were murdered by stick lashes. I have found and recorded 21 residents in the locality who lost their hands or legs or both, or were paralysed. The brutality was limitless; I have found and talked to a survivor, Kahsay Abebe, whose hand skin was peeled by knife like a goat and the scar on his skin is still visible.

In other instances, they would gather individuals through home-to-home searches and force them to carry wounded soldiers and murder them whenever the wounded were either dead on the way or when they reached their destination. Witness I spoke to clearly stated that during the early weeks the forces spared no one. Informants testimony throughout the district indicate that the occupying forces killed people on the streets, at home or in hiding. In the five villages alone, I have identified the names and identities of more than 185 civilians murdered in the early days of the occupation, excluding wounded and disabled survivors. The record shows that most of the victims killed in their homes were the elderly, the sick, and people with disabilities, unable to flee from their homes. All witnesses I spoke with within the five villages unanimously stated, “Anyone who stayed home, believing they were safe as civilians, did not survive to tell the story”. The survivors are those who fled to the mountains, caves, and forests. During my stay, I have seen massacre sites and mass graves. I have seen wounded, disabled, and traumatised residents. I have seen ruined and nonfunctional private and public infrastructures, including private homes, clinics, schools, and agricultural training centres. 

As though killing was not enough, the corpses were intentionally left on the highways and streets, visible for residents to see. The perpetrators watched over the bodies for weeks and months, making sure that they remained un-buried. While killing the residents, these forces broke into houses and looted what they wanted and destroyed what they did not want or were not be able to carry. They burnt homes as they wished and shattered roofs using bullets. They mixed flour with water and slaughtered farmers’ sheep and cattle. Sometimes, they slaughtered animals that they did not eat. I have observed emptied and destroyed public institutions, which I learned were plundered and destroyed by the occupying forces. These include schools, clinics, and agricultural training centres. The “plasma TVs” (TV sets used for educational purposes) in the high school, the school chairs and tables were ransacked and taken to Amhara, the books were burnt. While recalling and trying to describe those trying times, the witnesses often broke down in tears, wailing “It was like the end of the world” and “We thought we were vanishing as a society, unable to tell our stories”. 

A 78 year’s old resident, shot by the occupying forces, suffering for more than two years from lack of access to medical treatment.

The ruined chairs that only remains in the High School of Fala Village

Following the initial wave of violence, the occupying forces dismantled the Tigray administration. They destroyed everything that embodied the community’s identity, history, language, and administration. They destroyed all books and teaching materials to make sure nothing remained in the hands of anyone. They destroyed all school, medical and administrative records. They introduced their own new curriculum written in Amharic and Agew languages. They zoned the districts of Ofla and Zata under the Amhara Regional Administration. To do so, they brought around 200 to 300 “public servants” to each of the villages from the Amhara region to take over all sectors, including administration, health, and education. Yet their primary focus has been on forcing residents to accept an Amhara identity. They all worked to implement assimilation measures without regard to their supposed responsibilities. This forced assimilation has been implemented through various brutal methods. They did not provide any public service; instead, they engaged in widespread propaganda, attempting to convince the residents to renounce their Tigrayan identity and accept the Amhara identity. 

In so doing, residents were not allowed to speak their Tigrinya language though it is their only mother tongue. Students were forced to attend education in Amharic and Agew languages. As a result, the students did not want to go to school but parents were intimidated to send their children. Anyone found speaking Tigrinya was beaten and dehumanised. As such, all individuals I spoke with in these villages stated, “You cannot find a single person that was not beaten several times”. They added, in due course “We assumed as if the harassment and whipping is our duty”. The elderly, the religious leaders and parents were whipped up repeatedly in front of their children, at their homes and in public areas. The people I talked to told me that “the Amhara forces usually talked to us in Amharic but as we are not able to speak in the same, we try to reply in Tigrinya or we call for interpreters. During such times, they beat us until sticks are broken”. At other times, they ask residents to show identity cards at checkpoints or even localities and homes, if you show them the Tigray identity card, they beat you mercilessly as if it is a crime”. Later they issued Amhara identity cards and sanctioned everyone to take the same identity. Anyone who failed to take and hold that identity card was beaten up.

The physical and psychological trauma inflicted on the residents is never-ending. Many people were living with missing limbs, fractured legs, or facial scars. These injuries were the result of beatings for speaking Tigrinya or showing Tigrayan identity cards or failing to take and show newly issued Amhara identity cards or for not sending children to school. Those who resisted this sinister plan were met with fines, harassment, and brutal attacks on their parents.

Moreover, the occupiers enforced a strict policy of preventing anyone from crossing into areas that remained under the control of the Tigray administration, following a shoot-to-kill policy, similar to Eritrea’s long-standing practices against its citizens. This led to numerous deaths, including women who died during childbirth due to the lack of medical facilities, according to many accounts.

I asked all individuals I got the opportunity to speak with “what was the main reason the occupying forces used to state that triggered them to inflict such crimes upon the civilian population?” The reply was almost unanimous. They said “they called us junta” (“Junta” was a term the regime used to describe the TPLF following the breakout of the war. The term later became a catch-all phrase to describe all ethnic Tigrayans); “we cannot get peace until the junta is destroyed,” “we cannot get peace unless the Tigre [Tigrayans] vanished”. They also added they wanted us to live in the land only if we accepted the Amhara identity. If we easily submitted to them, the punishments were instantly eased but they further investigated deeply as to whether that submission was honest or fake. If they thought it was fake, for instance by establishing that the person under review speaks Tigrinya, the measure would become more severe, including killing or expulsion from one’s home and village. 

As the illegal administration came to an end in recent weeks, the departing occupiers took whatever they could carry, leaving behind a traumatized population and a warning that they would return. The damage inflicted on these communities is profound, and everyone I spoke to could hardly believe that their suffering might finally be ending with the withdrawal of their tormentors.

This experience underscores the crucial need to document atrocities committed and provide psychological assistance to survivors. The substantial investment by the Amhara region, apparently with the approval of the federal government, in this illegal annexation starkly violates the Pretoria Agreement and reveals the full extent of their intentions. The suffering of communities in South Tigray under Amhara annexation mirrors the reports from Western Tigray, highlighting the urgent need to end these illegal administrations immediately. This is long overdue and essential for restoring peace and justice.

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About the author:

Gebremeskel Hailu is an Assistant Professor in Constitutional and Public Law at Mekelle University’s School of Law. He can be reached at gerelaw2008@gmail.com.