An uncovered mass grave holding hundreds of civilians in Ethiopia’s Tigray region was the handiwork of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front, according to a senior federal government official.
Ethiopia’s State Minister of the Government Communications Service, Selamawit Kassa told a press briefing that Tigrayan rebels killed hundreds of civilians in Gashena, Antsokia Gemza and other parts of the Amhara Region.
She said these crimes have been uncovered after the areas were liberated by federal forces.
“Mass graves have been found in areas where massacres were committed by the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces” she said.
According to information released by Amhara Media Corporation, at least 400 civilians were massacred in Gashena town only as a mass grave holding some 70 corpses was uncovered in Antsokia Gemza on Sunday.
Kassa stated that the ‘joint terrorist force’ has looted and vandalized private and public properties and destroyed a number of tourist attraction sites apart from the horrendous crimes it committed against civilians.
She called on international organisations concerned with human rights to carry out detailed investigations on these reported crimes and come up with a report on the “horrendous massacres carried out by the TPLF and their allies”.
According to Kassa the rebels also destroyed six religious sites, two cultural and tourism institutions and 22 tourism service delivery organizations worth 23 million Birr in Amhara and Afar Regions.
Menz Guassa, Borena Saint and Guna and Abune Yoseph community conservation area and the Worehimenu National Park in Amhara Region have been destroyed by the rebels and with them the livelihoods of thousands of beneficiary households, she stated.
Kassa said the TPLF “vandalized” the airport of the World heritage site and one of the holy cities of Ethiopia in Lalibela.
Lalibela is a world renowned religious site and tourist attraction at the same time that attracts thousands of people globally.
She said the vandalism reportedly committed by the TPLF was a deliberate attempt to stifle Ethiopia’s progress in the tourism and other sectors of the economy.
The Special Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations, Taye Atske Selassie said the actions are “unrivaled criminal thuggery”.
MG/as/APA