The “two bullets slaughter” scares the world: soldiers execute unarmed youth in Ethiopia

In recent weeks, a shocking video of a mass murder near Mahibere Dego in a mountainous region of central Tigray, Ethiopia, showing Ethiopian soldiers firing point blank at a group of unarmed young men, taking them by the arms and legs, then throwing them or hitting them on a rocky slope as if they were rag dolls.

In the pictures you can hear the soldiers who call themselves not to waste bullets, to use the minimum necessary to kill and to ensure that none of the party members are left alive. They also seemed to encourage each other, praising the murders as heroic deeds and insult the men in captivity.

The mass massacre near Mahibere Dego is one of many denounced during the five-month conflict in Ethiopia, in which we think that thousands of civilians have been killed, raped and ill-treated. Journalism is severely restricted, and telephone and Internet services are frequently blocked.

Thanks to a picture-by-picture forensic investigation of video images, corroborated by the analysis of experts in modeling and digital verification of Amnesty International, as good as interviews with 10 family members and local residents, the American channel CNN found that men dressed in Ethiopian army uniforms executed a group of at least 11 unarmed people before disposing of their bodies near Mahibere Dego.

Dawit, one of those interviewed by CNN, believes that one of the men in the video is her 23 year old younger brother, whom he last saw wearing the same clothes as in pictures at his mother’s house in Mahibere Dego on January 15. The video is not dated, but it was probably filmed on the same day.

Dawit was in the field tending to his cattle when he said the Ethiopian soldiers came to town and went door to door dragging young people out of their homes, including his brother.

According to Dawit, soldiers shot him down and he had to run into a bush to escape, causing a leg injury as he hurried down a rocky path.

Until he saw the video, Dawit claimed he had no idea what happened to his brother. But even after seeing the footage countless times, he ensured that he still hopes Alula is alive.

“Since we did not see his body with our own eyes and we did not bury our brother ourselves, it’s hard for us to believe he’s dead. We feel like he’s still alive, we can’t accept his deathDawit said. “We will always remember”he added.

After the attack, Dawit fled Mahibere Dego with two of his teenage brothers, limping 19 kilometers to his older brother’s house in Axum. Hundreds of displaced people from the city and its surroundings are now sleeping on the streets.

Dawit revealed that the only people still in town are those who are too old to take long walks, including their mother, who does not have internet or satellite TV access, therefore did not see the shocking video of the mass murder.

Ethiopia faces a full investigation for human rights violations that could constitute war crimes in its Tigray region. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died since November, when the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, launched a major military operation against the ruling party of Tigray, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), dispatch of national troops and militiamen from the Amhara region to Ethiopia.

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