The singer-songwriter, whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, said on Sunday that he would donate $ 1 million to Ethiopian aid through the UN World Food Program.
A recent CNN investigation found that men in Ethiopian army uniforms executed unarmed men in Tigray. A BBC-led investigation also published Thursday confirming the same massacre near Mahibere Dego, a mountainous area in downtown Tigray.
On Friday, Ethiopia’s government rejected evidence of these claims.
“My heart breaks for my people in Ethiopia, because innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered and entire villages are being displaced out of fear and destruction,” The Weeknd, whose parents are from Ethiopia, said on its Instagram and Twitter bills.
“I will donate $ 1 million to host 2 million meals through the United Nations World Food Program and encourage those who can to donate as well.”
The violence in Ethiopia has continued since November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered attacks on the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after Ahmed claimed that TPLF was attacking a federal military base.
The UN announced on March 25 that the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission would launch a joint investigation into possible crimes.
The UN World Food Program has stated that the “outbreak of conflict coincides with (Ethiopia)’s peak season, which means that employment and income have been lost, markets have been disrupted, food prices have risen and access to cash and fuel has become very difficult has.” The Ethiopian government has estimated that 4.5 million people need ‘life-saving’ aid by the end of this year, the UN reports.
This is not the first time The Weeknd has contributed to a cause.
The singer donated $ 300,000 last August to the global Aid for Lebanon campaign to help victims of an explosion in Beirut that killed more than 200 people, his manager announced on social media.
Following the assassination of George Floyd in May last year, The Weeknd also donated $ 500,000 to racial groups: the Black Lives Matter Global Network, Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp and the National Bail Out Collective.
He also partnered with TikTok in a live stream on August 7 that raised more than $ 350,000 for the Equal Justice Initiative by selling limited merchandise.
CNN’s Bethlehem Feleke, Eliza Mackintosh, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase and Nima Elbagir contributed to this report.