After 64 days, I finally managed to talk to someone who travelled on foot for 3 days to reach #Mekelle from Rubagered, a village in central #Tigray where I grew up and where my parents live. Hearing a familiar voice over the phone gave me goosebumps.
What he told me about what's going on in our villages is heartbreaking. He told me that there's been at least 5 rounds of heavy fights & the invading #EritreanArmy still controlls the area.
In Rubagered, my home village, he confirmed that the #EritreanArmy killed 3 civilians; Birhane Gebru Weldemichel (my 60 year old farmer cousin), Teweldebirhan Weldekidan and Jemal Abdelkadir (a shopkeeper).
Only small parts of the body of Teweldebirhan who was killed outside his home were found as hyenas scavanged his body💔
What's happening in the area & in #Tigray in general, the person I talked to argued, is a repeat of what #Derg tried to do in the 1970s & 80s, "to wipe us out"
#Ethiopian and #Eritrean armies also burned the entire village including harvested crop piles, farmers' homes & my childhood school. He also told me that in terms of human cost, Rubagered is the least affected of the villages around our district.
The impact of the war he said is heavier in neighbouring villages where entire families were massacred, homes looted & destroyed by #Eritrean mercenaries. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured caught in cross-fires or intentionally targeted in churchs and schools.
My parents, he said, are still alive, but they've been out of our home for over 2 months' hiding in caves & villages as far away from the roads as possible. It breaks my heart imagining how my father who is in his mid-80s & never liked leaving his home for a day is doing this.
It has been 60 days since @AbiyAhmedAli declared #WarOnTigray. 60 days on, the war still rages across Tigray & the region is still under almost full communication, banking and transport block out. From the limited info that comes out, millions of people are starving 1
due to lack of access to power, cash to buy supplies as banks are still closed and bank accounts every Tigrayan suspended, & absence of trade activities. UNICEF reports that more than 2m children in Tigray are completely cut off from humanitarian assist unicef.org/press-releases… 2
Civilians killed and displaced: According to UN-OCHA, there are reportedly over a million internally displaced people with no humanitarian assistance. Families in their hundreds of 1000s are separated. We also hear that supplies of humanitarian assistance are deliberately
#Tigray
How many people do they need to die of indiscriminate bombing, regime induced collective starvation, luck of medical treatment and extra judicial killings by armies and ethnic militia supported by dictatorial regimes for the #UN and @antonioguterres to intervene?
In #Tigray, it has been 46 days since @AbiyAhmedAli's regime declared a full-scale war consisting of indiscriminate shelling of all cities, drone attacks, massacres committed civilians by ethnic #Amhara militia and two national armies (#Ethiopian and #Eritrean).
Amidst of the war, transport, communication and banking services are blocked and bank accounts of every single Tigrayan are suspended, which means, they cannot withdraw money to buy basics even if they have money in their accounts.
"Since the war began, heavy bombardment and shelling has rained down on Tigrayan cities. The region is being attacked on many fronts by the Ethiopian National Defense Force, the Eritrean military, Amhara security forces and militia, and special forces from Afar & other regions."
"There has been massive destruction of lives and property. Eritrean and Amhara elements have engaged in widespread pillaging and looting, including, according to multiple reports, prized cultural and religious artifacts."