Thread by @Yaolri

The Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) responded with wild claims devoid of any substantial evidence to the forensic investigations done by #BBCAfricaEye, @bellingcat, @Newsy, @CNN & @amnesty on the Mahbere Dego massacre in #Tigray.

A thread factchecking their response.

The ENDF response was made on April 7 by Indoctrination Director-General Major General Mohammed Tessema.

The section that is about the media investigations into the Mahbere Dego massacre starts at 45:45 and ends at 53:00 in this YouTube video:

Major General Tessema's main claim is that the massacre was staged by the TPLF, which then sent the videos to international media to get the Ethiopian government condemned.

Not only Major General Tessema produces zero evidence for that, but he also makes factual errors.

First, Major General Tessema says that this video—extract from BBC—showing ENDF soldiers, with what he claims are captured TPLF fighters, indeed represents ENDF men but has nothing to do with the clips picturing the massacre.

Working with @bellingcat and @Newsy, we have geolocated this specific video by matching ridgelines to an area...

...along this escarpment, which is about a kilometre from where the videos of the massacre show men in civilian clothes being shot.

It's important to note that we can't say for sure that the perpetrators and victims in that video are the same as in the images of the massacre.

But on top of the geospatial proximity, there is one man who seems to appear across multiple videos as @Newsy presents here.

It's certainly misleading to say that the video has nothing to do with those showing the massacre in the making.

But when added to our geolocation of the video, that statement by Major General Tessema does confirm the presence of ENDF soldiers in the area of Mahbere Dego.

This validation of ENDF soldiers operating around Mahbere Dego aligns with testimonies we got from a resident of Mahbere Dego.

This individual told the BBC that the Ethiopian army took away 73 men from the town and surrounding area on January 15th this year.

We also obtained a satellite image, taken on January 20th 2021, that shows a heavy military presence just 200m away from the site of the killings.

Second, Major General Tessema claims that the soldiers in the videos of the massacre shoot in the air, that the men dropping to the ground are just acting, and that there is no blood.

Anyone who sees the videos of the killings can immediately see that this is all incorrect.

The soldiers shoot at the individuals in civilian clothing, not in the air.

How the men then drop to the ground and are later thrown off the cliff does not fit with this wild claim of them "acting".

There is blood visible at many points in the videos.

Third, Major General Tessema says that the soldiers in this video—extract from BBC—have a Tigrinya accent.

We got at least 5 Amharic translators (some speaking Tigrinya) to watch the videos.

All said independently that the soldiers speak Amharic, with city/southern accents.

Major General Tessema goes on saying that some videos were captured on mobile, others with a professional camera and that even the narration shows this is a proper film production.

Again, any sensible person can see from watching the videos that these are wild claims.

Major General Tessema concludes by saying that the ENDF does not kill and then records it on video, and that the ENDF is well disciplined.

Evidence gathered by #BBCAfricaEye, @bellingcat, @Newsy, @CNN, @amnesty, and many other media/NGOs say otherwise.

The massacre at Mahbere Dego is receiving attention because it was recorded on camera.

But it is not the only atrocity to have taken place in this war. Many off camera in fact.

To read our full #BBCAfricaEye investigation into the Mahbere Dego massacre and follow the steps we took with @bellingcat and @Newsy to come to our conclusions, go to the thread below:

https://twitter.com/BBCAfrica/status/1377906761320046592

You can watch @newsy’s report here >

And read @Bellingcat’s analysis here > bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/0…

Independently, @CNN and @amnesty investigated the same massacre and came to the same conclusions.

They also obtained more testimonies from the ground.

You can read and watch their investigation here > edition.cnn.com/2021/04/01/afr…