
Casualties of the Tigray War refers to the civilian and military deaths and injuries in the
Tigray War that started in November 2020, in which
rape and other sexual violence are also widespread.
Precise casualty figures are uncertain. According to researchers at
Ghent University in Belgium, as many as 600,000 people had died as a result of war-related violence and
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
by late 2022.
The scale of the death and destruction led ''
The New York Times'' to describe it in November 2022 as "one of the world’s bloodiest contemporary conflicts."
Breakdown
True casualties statistics have been difficult to determine, largely due to deliberate
information blackouts in the region. Journalists have noted the difficulty they face attempting to report on the war, as the Ethiopian government has taken steps to reduce press access to the
Tigray Region, facing the risk of getting killed or imprisoned. It is also been reported that there is an unwillingness from either side to fully confirm precise numbers.
While
Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed initially spoke of no civilian casualties in the early days of the war, by February 2021, he described the level of death in Tigray as "hav
ngcaused much distress for me personally.”
Massacres
Numerous reports have been made of
extrajudicial killings and
summary execution
A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...
s (in many cases, targeting civilians) since the war began.
Terminology:
*
ENDF - Ethiopian National Defense Forces
*
EDF - Eritrean Defense Forces
*
TPLF - Tigray People's Liberation Front
**
TDF TDF may refer to:
Rebel group
* Tigray Defense Forces a rebel group situated in Tigray against the federal government.
Defense force
* Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces
Technology
* Tab delimited files, a tabular data file format
* Tél ...
- Tigrayan Defense Forces
*
Fano - Amhara public force or Amhara resistance force
Civilian deaths

, the highest estimate of civilian deaths in the Tigray War is that stated by three of the opposition parties of the
2020 Tigray regional election
On 9 September 2020, the Ethiopian region of Tigray held an election for its state council. The election was considered illegal by the federal government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who postponed the 2020 general election earlier in the year ...
,
National Congress of Great Tigray
The National Congress of Great Tigray ( ti, ብሄራዊ ባይቶ ዓባይ ትግራይ) or Baytona ( ti, link=no, ባይቶና) is a political party in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
Policies
In September 2020, prior to the 2020 Tigray region ...
,
Tigray Independence Party and
Salsay Woyane Tigray
The Salsay Weyane Tigray ( ti, ሳልሳይ ወያነ ትግራይ, SAWET) is a political party in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.
Policies
In January 2021, SAWET's political programme was outlined as follows:Twitter account @salsayweyanetigra ...
, who were allocated 15 seats in September 2020, prior to the war.
The three parties' February 2021 statement (published 2 February) estimated that at least 52,000 civilians had been killed by the ENDF, the
Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF), Amhara militias, and other forces allied with the ENDF.
Hailu Kebede, head of foreign affairs in Salsay Woyane Tigray, stated that the three parties' data collection method was to try to register data from witnesses in every administrative area in Tigray Region. He stated that "thousands" of names were already recorded.
Belgium’s Ghent University's 2022 estimates put the number of dead at due to the war at 300,000 to 500,000 including 50,000 to 100,000 deaths from fighting,
150,000 to 200,000 deaths due to famine and 100,000 deaths from lack of medical attention.
Military deaths
2020
An ENDF soldier present at the attack on the
Adigrat base of the ENDF Northern Command during the
4 November Northern Command attacks
On 3–4 November 2020, forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle and bases in Adigrat, Agula, Dansha, and Sero in the ...
, Bulcha, stated to ''
BBC News'' that there were 32 ENDF fatalities and 100 TPLF fatalities.
Based on its 14–18 November 2020 visit and a visit starting 10 January 2021 to the Tigray Region, the
Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) reported a Humera hospital employee's count of the war deaths as 92, including military (ENDF and TPLF) and civilian deaths.
An estimated 760 troops (ENDF and TPLF) were killed during fighting in the Raya region.
The TPLF claimed on 24 November to have killed thousands of ENDF and Eritrean in three fronts: Adwa, Idagahamus and Ray-Mokoni. They also claimed to have killed almost an entire Ethiopian division during fighting at Raya. This division is the 21st mechanised division.
On 7 December 2020 heavy fighting broke out between AMISOM troops and Ethiopian troops in Hiran region, Somalia, when Ethiopian troops tried to disarm Tigrayan troops. In total 21 Tigrayan soldiers and 20 Ethiopian soldiers were killed.
Notes
References
External links
fully documented civilian casualties
{{Tigray conflict
Tigray War
Tigray War