Wereta killings

⧼validator-fatal-error⧽

Wereta withs its ‘bajaj’ threecycles, some of which where used to drag the dead victims through the town

Wereta killings ቅትለት ዋሪታ
Part of Tigray War
Location of Wereta in Ethiopia
Location
Date
Target	Tigrayans
Attack type	Ethnic cleansing
Deaths	3 civilians
Perpetrators	fano militia

The Wereta killings (Tigrinya: ቅትለት ዋሪታ) was an extrajudicial killing that took place in Wereta in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 11 July 2021.

Killings

Following defeats of the ENDF and Amhara Special Forces in the Tigray War, the Fano (militia) took revenge on Tigrayan citizens in towns in Amhara region, killing people and looting shops, for instance in Wereta, where three Tigrayans were killed. A large group of militia from Wereta and surrounding Fogera district had been occupying the Dima district in Tigray as part of the tripartite (Ethiopia-Eritrea-Amhara) war against Tigray. On 10 July, they were defeated by the Tigray Defence Forces and a group of Wereta militia, as well as the head of the Peace and Security Bureau of the Fogera woreda were killed on the battlefield in Fiyelwiha, a small town of the Dima district in Tigray. In revenge, the Amhara Fano (militia) and mob murdered three civilians of Tigrayan origin in Wereta on 11 July 2021. Social media displayed imagery of the corpses been drag behind three wheel motorcycles, called “bajaj”.

The statement [of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC)] also cited reports indicating that residents from the Woreda of the security head’s birthplace, Gumera Wonz, who had come to receive his body, were responsible for the retaliatory attacks on the three residents. — Yonas Abiye, EHRC calls for civilian protection, The Reporter, 17 July 2021.

In line with historical studies of massacres, including those massacres which were committed during the Armenian genocide, a massacre can be defined as a conflict incident in which at least five unarmed civilians were killed on the same day at the same location. Hence the Wereta killings would not qualify as a “massacre”.

Perpetrators

The EHRC reported the perpetrators of this massacre as being a mob composed of militia members and relatives of the fallen Security Head.

Victims

The three victims have been identified:

• Mr. Seare Aregay
• Mr. Godefay Tekle
• Ms. Rigbe Awet

Reactions

After receiving information of killings targeting civilians in the pretext of conflict, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) urged the protection of them. After months of denial by the Ethiopian authorities that massacres occurred in Tigray, a joint investigation by OHCHR and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission was announced in March 2021. In September 2021, in a preliminary briefing in relation to this investigation, UNHRC Chief Michelle Bachelet mentioned that gross violations of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law have been observed in Tigray.

See also

• Murders and massacres in the Tigray War
• Timeline of the Tigray War – July 2021

External links

• World Peace Foundation: Starving Tigray
• Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation
• TGHAT: A compilation of the verified list of civilian victims from different sources

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