Media/new service TMH has released a second video of the horrific massacre in Mahibere-Degue.
The Mahibere-Degue massacre is believed to have occurred on January 24 of this year, and a video depicting the horrific violence started surfacing on social media soon afterward. TMH claimed first that the video was recorded by an Ethiopian soldier fighting in the Tigray war. The soldier later turned whistleblower and sold the footage to the media outlet; as per TMH journalist Stalin Geberesealssie, TMH paid the soldier directly to obtain the footage.
The videos’ broadcast caused a big stir, even among corporate Media, with the likes of CNN, BBC, and France 24 picking up on the story. It was the first time the Ethiopian government was implicated in war crimes since the start of armed conflict in the region. And even though the government of Ethiopia had denied the massacres, the videos clearly show Ethiopian soldiers in distinct ENDF uniforms talking in Amharic (not natively spoken in the region of Tigray and the language used in the Ethiopian military).
Now a second video of the massacre has been broadcast by the same media outlet. Even though the origin of the new videos is not clear, they appear similarly grainy in quality and feature the same penetrating voice as the videos released in March. This time around, the man behind the camera announces himself as Fafi. He also gives away his unit: the 25th division, 1st brigade. In the video, quite similar to the previous ones, the man prods fellow men – and women - to shot at the ‘Woyanes’(a term synonyms with the TPLF and its ideologies).
In the video, the solitary woman in the squadron can be seen shooting at the men lying Cliffside, at the prodding of the cameraman. ‘Do him, Do him!’ he instructs her, then praises the female soldier for her deadly act. Then the camera turns to another soldier, aiming at one of the men lying at the ridge. From very close range, the soldier releases a brace of gunfire, which draws excitement from the female soldier, Uttering profanity at the mothers of their victims.
The impunity on display is shocking. The man who announced himself as Fafi goes on a rant, ‘yes, as you can see, we have eradicated the woyanes. Look at this one; as you can see, this one is a woyane. I will shoot him for you guys’ then lets out a loud shot at one of the dead bodies lying at the ridge. He continues recording the shocking violence as if streaming a vlog. As if broadcasting for millions of followers around the world.
Even though the victims shown in the videos don’t appear to be rebel fighters, they are adjudged to have been members of theTPLF. The men were not combatants, and in fact, families of victims have spoken on the massacres, denying the victims’ involvement in the conflict. They claimed that the victims had only been ordinary cattle herders, farmers, and merchants.
Sources say that the ENDF troops started surrounding young men and boys from the village and surrounding areas. The townsfolk have claimed that seventy-three people were taken from the town and summarily executed around the town of Mahibere-Degue.
The victim in pilgrim’s garb
In the video released by TMH, one key piece is protruding from the whole horror show. The fate of one particular man – wearing a white shawl and donning a red shirt – was sealed by the Ethiopian squadron proudly seen in the videos. He featured in three of the videos released in March. To give chronological order to the victim’s status on all three footages: on the first video, he is seen sitting among a group of two dozen men. In the second video, he can be seen being led at gunpoint down a dusty plateau to the edge, where he shall draw his last breath. And in the third video, his lifeless body is lying at the cliff edge. Many deduced that the same soldiers had shot the man, but none of the videos show the man getting shot.
In the newly obtained footage, the victim is at the receiving end of heavy gunfire. He takes a crouching position at the Cliffside before bullets penetrate his backside, his body falling over the cliff to triumphant cheers from the ENDF squadron.
Ethiopian government response
Thus far, the Ethiopian government has not responded to the latest horrific video. It is known that a joint OHCHR and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission inquiry was announced in March 2021. In a statement by the Ethiopian embassy in London, severe allegations of human rights would be investigated. Adding further that ‘the outcome of these investigations will enable the Government to bring the perpetrators to justice and comprehensively address alleged human rights violations and crimes that have occurred in Tigray.’
Various organizations, including the EU, UN, and AU, have expressed their growing concerns. With world attention shifting to Tigray, mainly due to allegations of weaponized sexual violence, looming famine, and massacres like Mahibere-Degue, Arat kilo has no option but to take the allegations seriously.
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