The Humera massacre was an

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

event carried out in November 2020 in the town of

Humera Humera (; ) is a town in the Kafta Humera woreda in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Western Zone the town has an elevation of above sea level. The Tekezé river borders the town to the north. Humera is a very important regional ...

() in the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is ...

of northwestern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, next to the Sudanese border. The massacre took place during an armed conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal

government of Ethiopia The government of Ethiopia () is the federal government of Ethiopia. It is structured in a framework of a federal republic, federal parliamentary system, parliamentary republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, prime minister is the hea ...

. Refugees attributed the massacre to Amhara militias, including

Fano Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the ''Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by popula ...

, and the

Ethiopian National Defense Force The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) ( am, የኢፌዲሪ መከላከያ ሠራዊት, Ye’īfēdērī mekelakeya šerawīt, lit=FDRE Defense Force) is the military force of Ethiopia. Civilian control of the military is carried out t ...

(ENDF).

Background

During the

Tigray conflict 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 ENDF claimed to have obtained control of

Humera Airport Humera Airport is an airport serving Humera, a town in the northwestern Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The name of the city and airport may also be transliterated as Himera or Himora. Humera Airport is located at , which is southeast of Humera () ...

, 70 km south of Humera, on 10 November and claimed to gain control of Humera on 12 November.

Testimonies

Refugees who had been interviewed by the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'' implicated the Ethiopian military and Amhara militias in a massacre in

on unknown dates in early November 2020. The refugees stated that they "were attacked by knife-wielding militiamen from the neighbouring Amhara region, who had joined forces with federal troops and cut people to death as they tried to escape." Zenebe, an ethnic Tigrayan, stated, "The soldiers of Abiy Ahmed didn't differentiate between people. They crushed all the people. It is like a genocide." Gidey, also a Tigrayan, stated, "I saw soldiers kill a taxi man and the two people in the taxi because there was a poster of the Tigrayan president in the car." One witness said that he had seen twenty bodies killed by knives, guns and shelling. A 54-year old refugee interviewed by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Gush Tela from Humera, stated that he was beaten by federal security forces "until he was covered in blood and could not walk". He stated that the federal forces transferred him to an Amhara youth group, ''

'', who freed him. Tela stated that the Fano were ordered to destroy Humera and "'finish' Tigrayans". Tela said that he witnessed a man "

beheaded Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the ...

with machetes". Other refugees showed wounds that they attributed to "knife and machete attacks by Fano militia". A Humera resident, Meles, interviewed by ''

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 ...

'' in a refugee camp, stated that the Amhara militias that arrived in Humera had "cut people's heads". On 23 November, AFP stated that the administration of the conquered parts of

Western Tigray The Western Zone () is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is subdivided into three woredas (districts); from north to south they are Kafta Humera, Welkait and Tsegede. The largest town is Humera. The Western Zone is bordered on the east ...

had been taken over by officials from Amhara Region.

EHRC visit

Based on its 14–18 November 2020 visit to

Dansha Dansha is a town in Tigray, Ethiopia, located in the northwestern part of the country. History On July 7, 1988, during the Ethiopian Civil War, the Ethiopia government's Third Revolutionary Army's 604 Army Corps was ambushed by the Tigray P ...

, Humera and

Mai Kadra Mai Kadra (also spelled May Cadera; ) is a town in Tigray Region, Ethiopia near the Sudanese border. Mai Kadra' suffered from Mass extrajudicial killings Mai Kadra massacre during Tigray War Overview Mai Kadra is a market town on the Gonder–H ...

and a visit to Mekelle and other parts of Tigray Region starting on 10 January 2021, the

Ethiopian Human Rights Commission The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ሰብዓዊ መብቶች ኮሚሽን) is a national human rights institution (NHRI) established by the Ethiopian government. The EHRC is charged with promoting human right ...

(EHRC) reported a Humera hospital employee's count of the war deaths as 92, including ENDF, TPLF and civilians. Security was mainly controlled by Amhara special forces and militia. Looting by

, Amhara special forces and militia, and ENDF and Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) soldiers was reported, as well as harassment of ethnic Tigrayan residents. The

EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation The EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation is a human rights investigation launched jointly by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in mid-2021 into human rights vio ...

reported victims from shelling as well as the massacre in this locality, without going into further detail about the latter.

Wider region

Ashenafi Hailu, an ethnic Tigrayan, survived a massacre on a road during the Tigrayan conflict, and fled to the

Hamdayet Border Reception Centre Hamdayet Border Reception Centre is a refugee reception centre in eastern Sudan used for Ethiopian refugees fleeing the Tigray War that started in November 2020. Location Hamdayet Border Reception Centre is located in a small village ''Hamdayet' ...

in Sudan as a refugee. On 29 November, the

Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation The Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), now rebranded as ETV (stylized in all lowercase), is an Ethiopian government-owned public service broadcaster. It is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is the country's oldest and largest bro ...

stated that 70 burial pits containing bodies were found close to

. In the televised report, an anonymous military official attributed the deaths to the TPLF.

Reactions

After months of denial by the Ethiopian authorities that massacres occurred in Tigray, a joint investigation by

OHCHR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

and the

has been announced in March 2021. While the Ethiopian government promised that

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 troops will be pulled out from Tigray, the Eritrean government denies any participation in warfare in Tigray, let alone in massacres.DW, 19 March 2021
Fact check: Are other nations involved in the war in Tigray?
/ref>

References

External links

World Peace Foundation: Starving Tigray
{{Tigray conflict, state=collapsed November 2020 crimes in Africa Massacres in 2020 Ethnic cleansing 2020 in Ethiopia 2020 murders in Ethiopia 2020 massacres of the Tigray War