Eritrean troops fighting in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia killed hundreds of people in Aksum in November, mostly more than two days, witnesses said.
The massacres on November 28 and 29 could amount to a crime against humanity, Amnesty International said in a report.
An eyewitness told the BBC how many days remained unburied on the street for days while many were eaten by hyenas.
Ethiopia and Eritrea, which both officially deny that Eritrean soldiers are in Tigray, did not comment.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission says the report “should be taken seriously” and that it is investigating the allegations.
The conflict erupted on November 4, 2020 when the government of Ethiopia launched an offensive to expel the TPLF party from the region after its fighters captured federal military bases in Tigray.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, told parliament on November 30 that “not a single civilian was killed” during the operation.
But witnesses recounted how on the day they buried the bodies of unarmed civilians killed by Eritrean soldiers – many of them boys and men shot on the street or during house-to-house raids.
Amnesty’s report contains high-resolution satellite images from December 13 showing disturbed earth corresponding to recent graves at two churches in Aksum, an ancient city considered by the Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia.
A blurring of communication and limited access to Tigray meant that reports of what happened in the conflict slowly came up.
In Aksum, electricity and telephone networks apparently stopped working on the first day of the conflict.
How was Aksum caught?
According to people in the city, on Thursday 19 November on Thursday 19 November shelling began by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces in the west of Aksum.
“This attack lasted five hours and was incessant. People who were at churches, cafes, hotels and their residence were killed. There was no retaliation from any armed force in the city – it was literally aimed at civilians,” he said. a government official in Aksum told the BBC.
Amnesty has collected similar and numerous testimonies describing the continuous shelling of civilians that evening.
After taking control of the city, soldiers, generally identified as Eritreans, searched for TPLF soldiers and militias or “anyone with a gun,” Amnesty said.
“There were many … house-to-house murders,” one woman told the rights group.
There is compelling evidence that Ethiopian and Eritrean troops ‘carried out multiple war crimes in their offensive to take control of Aksum’, says Deprose Muchena of Amnesty.
What sparked the killings?
The following evidence states that the Ethiopian troops were mainly in Aksum – the Eritreans pushed east towards the city of Adwa.
A witness told the BBC how the Ethiopian army looted banks in the city at that time.
The Eritrean forces reportedly returned a week later. According to the Amnesty report, the fighting on Sunday, November 28, was caused by an assault of poorly armed pro-TPLF fighters.
Between 50 and 80 men from Aksum directed an Eritrean position on a hill in the morning.
A 26-year-old man who took part in the attack told Amnesty: “We wanted to protect our city, so we tried to defend it against Eritrean soldiers … They knew how to shoot and they had radios. , communication … did not have a gun, but only a stick. ‘
How did Eritrean troops react?
It is unclear how long the fighting lasted, but that afternoon Eritrean trucks and tanks entered Aksum, Amnesty reported.
Witnesses say Eritrean soldiers went on a rampage shooting at unarmed civilian men and boys who were on the streets – until evening.
More about the Tigray conflict:
A man in his twenties tells Amnesty about the killings in the city’s main street: ‘I was on the second floor of a building and watched through the window as the Eritreans killed the youth on the street. ‘
The soldiers, who were identified as Eritrean not only because of their uniform and vehicle number plates, but also because of the languages they spoke (Arabic and an Eritrean dialect of Tigrinya), began house-to-house searches. .
“I would say it was retaliation,” a young man told the BBC. “They killed every man they found. If you opened your door and found a man, they killed him; if you did not open it, they shoot your gate by force.”
He hid in a nightclub and saw a man who had been found and killed by Eritrean soldiers searching for his life: “He told them, ‘I am a citizen, I am a banker.’
Another man told Amnesty that he saw six men killed outside his home near the Abnet Hotel the following day on November 29.
“They set them up and shot them in the back from behind. Two of them I knew. They come from my area … They asked: ‘Where is your gun’ and they replied: ‘We have no guns, we are civilians. ”
How many people were killed?
Witnesses first say that the Eritrean soldiers would not approach anyone on the corpses on the street and that they would do anyone who did it.
One woman, whose nephews died aged 29 and 14, said the roads were “full of dead bodies”.
Amnesty says after the intervention of elders and Ethiopian soldiers, funerals began in a few days, and most funerals took place on November 30 after people brought the bodies to the churches – often ten at a time loaded on horse or donkey carts. .
At the Abnet Hotel, the government official who spoke to the BBC said that some bodies had not been removed for four days.
“The corpses that lay around Abnet Hotel and Seattle Cinema were eaten by hyenas. We only found bones. We buried bones.
“I can say about 800 civilians were killed in Aksum.”
This report is reproduced by a church deacon who told the Associated Press that many bodies were fed by hyenas.
He collected victims’ identity cards and helped with mass burials and also believes about 800 people died over the weekend.
The 41 survivors and witnesses interviewed by Amnesty gave the names of more than 200 people they knew who had been killed.
What happened after the funerals?
Witnesses say the Eritrean soldiers participated in looting, which became widespread and systematic after the massacre and so many people fled the city.
The university, private homes, hotels, hospitals, grain shops, garages, banks, DIY stores, supermarkets, bakeries and other shops were reportedly targeted.
One man told Amnesty how Ethiopian soldiers had failed to stop Eritreans from looting his brother’s house.
“They took the TV, a jeep, the fridge, six mattresses, all the groceries and cooking oil, butter, teff flour. [Ethiopia’s staple food], the kitchen cabinets, clothes, the beer in the fridge, the water pump and the laptop. ‘
The young man who spoke to the BBC said he knew of 15 stolen vehicles belonging to businessmen in the city.
It has had a devastating impact on those left behind in Aksum, leaving them with little food and medicine to survive, Amnesty says.
Witnesses say the theft of water pumps caused residents to drink from the river.
Why is Aksum sacred?
It is said to be the birthplace of the biblical queen of Sheba, who traveled to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon.
They had a son – Menelik I – who allegedly brought the Ark of the Covenant to Axum, which apparently contains the Ten Commandments passed on to Moses by God.
It is constantly guarded at Our Lady Mary of Zion Church in the city and no one is allowed to see it.
An important religious celebration is usually held at the church on November 30, attracting pilgrims from all over Ethiopia and around the world, but it was canceled last year amid the conflict.
The government official questioned by the BBC said Eritrean troops came to church on December 3 to terrorize the priests and force them to give them the gold and silver cross.
But he said the deacons and other young people went to protect the ark.
“It was a huge riot. Every man and woman fought against them. They fired guns and killed some, but we are happy because we did not protect our treasures.”