HAMDAYET, Sudan – The atrocities are being covered up in the skin and minds of Tigrayans, who are hiding thousands of people inside the face of the homeland to which they fled in northern Ethiopia.
They come in a heat rising above 100 F, with the pain of gunshot wounds, torn vaginas, success on beaten back. The memories are less visible: dozens of bodies strewn on riverbanks. Fighters who rape a woman one by one because she speaks her own language. A child weakened by hunger is left behind.
Now, for the first time, they are also bringing evidence of an official attempt at so-called ethnic cleansing in the form of a new identity card that erases all traces of Tigray, as confirmed by nine refugees from different communities to The Associated Press. The cards are written in a non-native language, issued by authorities of another ethnic group, and are seen as the latest evidence that Ethiopia and its allies were trying to destroy the Tigraian people.
The Amhara authorities, now in charge of the nearby city of Humera, took and burned the original ID card of Seid Mussa Omar with his Tigrayan identity, the gentle nurse said. His new map examined by the AP, released in January, features the Amharic language, an Amhara stamp and an edge of small hearts.
“I liked to show the world,” Seid said. “This is genocide … Their goal is to wipe out Tigray.”
What started as a political dispute in one of Africa’s most powerful countries has turned into a campaign against minority Tigrays, according to AP interviews with 30 refugees in Sudan. The Ethiopian government of Nobel laureate Abiy Ahmed is accused of collaborating with Abiy’s ethnic group – his mother was Amhara – and soldiers from neighboring Eritrea, who have long been an enemy of Tigray’s now-fleeing leaders, at about 6 p.m. to punish a million people.
Ethiopia claims that life in Tigray is back to normal. But the refugees said abuse was still occurring. Almost all the killings, rapes and destruction of crops that can result without massive food aid could leave the region starving.
Tigray has been largely cut off from the world for months, with access to electricity and telecommunications, and does little to support claims that perhaps tens of thousands of people have died.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed last month that “ethnic cleansing” had taken place in western Tigray, the first time a top official in the international community had openly described the situation as such. The term refers to the coercion of a population from a region by evictions and other violence, which often includes murders and rapes.
Refugees said Amhara authorities had taken over communities and ordered Tigrayane to move out. Goitom Hagos of Humera, told the AP he sees thousands of migrants loaded into trucks and does not know what happened to them.
Some refugees were ordered to accept or leave the Amhara identity.
The Tigray conflict began in November as a political clash of past and present. Tigray leaders have dominated the country’s government for nearly three decades, creating a system of ethnic regional states. But Abiy took office in 2018 and centralized power. He eliminated the Tigray leaders and made peace with Eritrea and earned a Nobel Peace Prize.
The defiant Tigray leaders considered the central government illegal after the election was delayed last year, and kept their own vote. The government launched a military offensive, saying Tigray forces had attacked a military base. Witnesses say Amhara and Eritrean forces essentially divide much of Tigray between them.
Ethiopia says it rejects ‘all ideas and practices of ethnic cleansing’. An Amhara regional spokeswoman declined to comment.
The killings continue. In early March, 30-year-old Alem Mebrahtu tried to cross the Tekeze River between parts of Tigray under Eritrean and Amhara swings. Apart from her children in the conflict, she heard that they were in Sudan.
About 50 bodies were scattered near the riverbank, she said. ‘Some were face down. Some looked up at the sky. Exhaustion pressed deep under her eyes, she began to cry.
For her own sake, she tries to learn Amharic.
“Their goal is to leave no Tigrayan,” she said.
According to the refugees, rapes are also widespread. One woman said when she returned to her looted house in Humera, she was apprehended by Amharic-speaking militia members. She asked them to speak Tigrinya, and they attacked her.
“Claim that you are Amhara, then we will return your house and find a man,” the men said. “But if you claim to be Tigrayan, we will rape you again.”
She is now pregnant. The AP does not name people who have been sexually abused.
The United Nations has said more than 500 rapes in Tigray have been reported to health workers. But armed groups destroyed most of Tigray’s health centers and left little help.
And there is more pain coming.
Almost every refugee described a worrying shortage of food. Most have seen crops looted or burned. Kidu Gebregirgis, a farmer, said the Amhara harvested and dragged away about 5,000 kilograms of sorghum from its lands, a task that lasted two weeks.
The conflict started shortly before the harvest in the largely agricultural region. Now the planting time is approaching.
“But there is no seed,” Kidu said. “There’s nothing to start over.”
Tigrants who have passed through rural communities describe hungry people, often elderly people, begging outside churches. Sometimes they did, too.
Again, ethnicity was crucial. Belaynesh Beyene, from Dansha, said she makes sure she speaks Amharic as she approaches homes in western Tigray for food.
Ethiopia, under international pressure, said food aid had been distributed to more than 4 million people in Tigray. Refugees did not agree.
Maza Girmay, 65, said she had heard that food was being distributed, so she went to the government office in Bahkar to inquire.
“They told me, ‘Go home, you’re Tigrayan,’ she said. The rejection brought her to tears.
A colonel with the Tigray fighters, Bahre Tebeje, was worried that hunger would kill more people than the war itself.
Tigrants still arrive daily at the border post where Sudanese soldiers are watching a no-man’s land. A recent night saw the AP arrive three.
In Sudan, the Tigrayans are registered and asked for their ethnicity. It is free for them to answer at some point.