The Hitsats massacre was a massacre at Hitsats refugee camp on or around 19 November 2020 during the

Tigray War The Tigray War; ; . was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray Peop ...

. The civilians killed were 300

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

n refugees, according to

Europe External Programme with Africa The Europe External Programme with Africa and Europe External Policy Advisors, both called EEPA, are two closely associated Belgian-based non-governmental organizations that aim to encourage the European Union's involvement in human rights in g ...

(EEPA), and five humanitarian workers, according to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

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, and the

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

Massacre

Eritrean Defence Force (EDF) soldiers arrived in Hitsats refugee camp on 19 November 2020. According to ''

'' (NYT), 40 people were killed in the initial battle between the EDF and local Tigrayan militias, including four civilians.

Civilian deaths

Eritrean refugees

According to a 10 January 2021

(EEPA) report, Ethiopian TV stated that 300 Hitsats refugees had been extrajudicially executed by the

Tigray People's Liberation Front The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...

(TPLF). An anonymous source quoted by EEPA disagreed, attributing the executions to the EDF, stating, "Eritrean forces massively killed their own citizens in Hitsats refugee camp to punish them for escaping their shoot to kill policy. Refugees interviewed by

Agence France Presse Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D ...

(AFP) stated that pro-TPLF forces used Hitsats as a base for several weeks in November 2020, killing several refugees who wanted to leave the camp to get food, and in one incident, killed nine young Eritrean men in revenge for having lost a battle against the EDF. Witnesses say that Eritrean soldiers swept through Hitsats camp, and killed, beat, raped and kidnapped refugees. Many people were taken, and those that tried to escape were shot.PBS Frontline, 4 May 2021
Escaping Eritrea (documentary film)
/ref>

Humanitarian workers

The four civilians killed in the initial battle, according to the ''NYT'' and

, were one Ethiopian employee of the

International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization. Founded in 1933 as the International Relief Association, at the request of Albert Einstein, and changing its name in 19 ...

and three Ethiopian civilian guards employed by the

Danish Refugee Council Danish Refugee Council (DRC) ( da, Dansk Flygtningehjælp) is a private Danish humanitarian nonprofit organization, founded in 1956. It serves as an umbrella organization for 33 member organizations. Formed after the Second World War in response ...

. A fifth refugee worker, a 52-year old employed by the Dutch

non-governmental organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

, was reported in late December 2020 to have been killed at Hitsats refugee camp. In early January 2021, the

(UNOCHA) called for "the unrestricted and safe passage of humanitarian personnel and supplies to all parts of Tigray Region".

Property destruction

Satellite images confirmed the presence of burned fields and forests. Analyses of satellite images by Planet Labs Inc and DX Open Network showed that on 5 January 2021, there were "at least 14 actively burning structures and 55 others

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damaged or destroyed", and that on 8 January there were new fires.

References

{{coord missing, Ethiopia November 2020 crimes in Africa 2020 in Ethiopia 2020 murders in Ethiopia Massacres in 2020 Massacres committed by Eritrea 2020 massacres of the Tigray War