Damage Assessment from Mai Kinetal Wereda

This is about a damage assessment conducted and sent by Mai Kinetal Wereda’s interim head. The letter is dated June 16, 2021. Mai Kinetal is one of one of Tigray’s more than 35 Weredas. The assessment accompanied by a cover letter is addressed to the Interim Administration of Tigray and different Bureaus. The assessment details per site in the Wereda the number of killed or affected people, the looting and destruction. We present a translation of the cover letter and the assessment below and attach the documents at the bottom.

The cover letter accompanying the damage assessment reads as below:

Re: Explaining the level of destruction and damage sustained by  residents MayKinetal district

As indicated in the subject line, the interim administration of Mai Kinetal has conducted a quantitative assessment of the loss and damage to human life, properties and livestocks resulting from  the war that has been ongoing for the past more than 7 months. Attached to this cover letter is tabular data of our findings including looted properties and livestock.
The population of Mai Kinetal has been denied the attention and support that is commensurate to the level of destruction, damage and attack that have been sustained for over seven months, to wit: transportation is blocked there is no access to clean water; electricity, phone communication, banking, healthcare, and access to humanitarian aid are blocked. All service providing institutes have been destroyed, and for over 7 months, people in the district have been locked and are falling like leaves by bullets and starvation and are under immense suffering. People are unable to  move around to save their lives because Eritrean troops completely put it under complete siege/blockade with no transportation and the people are condemned to suffer and die. The war broke out before the farmers in our district harvested and collected crops which were then burned down while it’s on the farm lands. And whatever was left in homes was looted and ruined leaving people with nothing to eat and with no seeds for sowing. Our farmers’ tools were burned, oxen slaughtered, goats and lambs confiscated. The farmers are left with nothing to sell that would otherwise have been used for the purchase of seeds, fertilizer and agricultural inputs. Therefore, unless farmers are provided with farming tools, seed and fertilizers, the next seasons of 2021 and 2022 will be even more catastrophic. Furthermore, over the last 7 months, aid was provided only once and even that was based on the 1995 census and couldn’t cover 50% of the residents. And due to the transportation blockade another round of aid or other assistance couldn’t be delivered.

Based on the foregoing and taking into consideration the dire situation the Mai Kinetal populace is facing, we request the support and collaboration of the honorable transitional government of Tigray together with its partners and bureaux to do all necessary follow ups before the people of Mai Kinetal perish due to bullets and starvation. We thank you in advance for all your cooperation and help.

The Damage Assessment

The damage assessment is organized per 10 Tabias ( small administrative units in he Wereda). It is one big table, but for the purpose of readability we present it here in three tables.

Damage to human lives

A total of 440 people have been killed, a total of 558 women raped and a total of 125 people died from starvation.

Burnt-down houses and crops

Looting

The letter and attachment has been translated into English by Hayet Alem