Leave no Tigrayan : In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased
By CARA ANNAApril 7, 2021 GMT
https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tigray-minority-ethnic-cleansing-sudan-world-news-842741eebf9bf0984946619c0fc15023
HAMDAYET, Sudan (AP) The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
They arrive in heat that soars above 38 C (100 F), carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, injured vaginas, welts on beaten backs. Less visible are the horrors that jolt them awake at night: Memories of dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman one by one for speaking her own language. A child, weakened by hunger, left behind.
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Farmer Nega Chekole, 30, a Tigrayan refugee from Humera, touches his stitched wound in Hamdayet, eastern Sudan, near the border with Ethiopia, on March 14. He says he was shot by militias before the war broke out on Nov. 4. The atrocities have been seared into the skin. It s often the only evidence at hand to show the world. Now Tigrayans by the thousands take shelter within sight of the homeland they left behind in northern Ethiopia, some of them told to leave or be killed. Image by Nariman El-Mofty. Sudan, 2021.
HAMDAYET, Sudan (AP) The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and may disturb some readers.
The atrocities have been seared into the skin and minds of Tigrayans, who shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
Berhane Gebrewahid, a 24-year-old Tigrayan farmer who fled the conflict in Ethiopia s Tigray.(AP)
They arrive in heat that soars above 38C, carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, torn vaginas, welts on beaten backs.
Less visible are the memories: Dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman one by one for speaking her own language. A child, weakened by hunger, left behind.
For months, the people of Tigray have been largely sealed off from the world, with electricity and telecommunication access severed and mobile phones often seized, leaving little to back up their claims of thousands, even tens of thousands, killed. That has begun to change.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asserted last month that “ethnic cleansing” has taken place in western Tigray, marking the first time a top official in the international community has openly described the situation as such. The term refers to forcing a population from a region through expulsions and other violence, often including killings and rapes.
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The atrocities have been seared into the skin and the minds of Tigrayans, who take shelter by the thousands within sight of the homeland they fled in northern Ethiopia.
They arrive in heat that soars above 38 C (100 F), carrying the pain of gunshot wounds, torn vaginas, welts on beaten backs. Less visible are the horrors that jolt them awake at night: Memories of dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters raping a woman one by one for speaking her own language. A child, weakened by hunger, left behind.
Now, for the first time, they also bring proof of an official attempt at what is being called ethnic cleansing in the form of a new identity card that eliminates all traces of Tigray, as confirmed to The Associated Press by nine refugees from different communities. Written in a language not their own, issued by authorities from another ethnic group, the ID cards are the latest evidence of a systematic drive by the Ethiopian government and its allie