Thread by @GebremeskelGeb

1/n

I have no words 📢📢📢

THREAD: #AbductedTigrayanCivilians

A heart-wrenching testimony from a #Tigrayan resident of Addis Ababa city:

Translated into English as follows:
<<
Let my name remain anonymous for the sake of my safety. I'm writing to you about ...

2/n
..the atrocity that has been committed on us. So, please disseminate this to all concerned bodies.
They abducted us 20 days ago together with my love as we were walking from Gurd Shola [in Addis Ababa] to our home [in Addis Ababa] at 8:30 pm during the night.
@LaetitiaBader

3/n
First, they asked both of us to show them our ID cards. Both my love & I gave them our ID cards. Then, they said, "you have an ID card of #Tigray and this is perfectly what we are hunting after." They told me to get into a police vehicle they had. I challenged them why? @hrw

4/n
What is my crime? But they couldn't give me a response. Though my love had an ID card of Addis Ababa city, they ordered her to get into the car, too. After they took us to Megenagna [in Addis Ababa], they told my love to drop off the car & get into another car. @amnesty @UN

5/n
Then, I asked them, "As long as she did nothing wrong, there is no reason for her to be taken away from her home late in a night. If you want, we can show you our home, you keep her ID with you, and come back home tomorrow during a daytime."
@JosepBorrellF @JanezLenarcic

6/n
I challenged & told them that they can't do like that. Then, they beaten me up to the level of making my hands and legs dysfunctional for the moment. They transferred my love to another car and took her to an unknown place during the night.
@USAmbUN @AnnLinde @HelenClarkNZ

7/n
And I was taken to Kaliti Police Station [in Addis Ababa]. I met there many #Tigrayans. It was a big warehouse. There were about 1000 #Tigrayan youths inside the room. After 4 days, they brought special buses which were 100% metallic [no glass windows].
@ICRC @ICRC_Africa

8/n
It was late in the night. They took us out of the warehouse & ordered us to get into the metallic buses. They put handcuffs on each of us & tied us firmly to the seats of the bus. Then, they took us to place called Shewarobit [in Amhara region]. @PMaurerICRC @DStillhartICRC

9/n
At Shewarobit, they divided us into 50 persons per group and put each group in separate rooms made up of steel. We were locked up inside the rooms for 3 days without food, water, fresh air, sunlight, & toilet. @Refugees @UNmigration @mbachelet @UNGeneva @UN_HRC @UNHumanRights

10/n
The place is extremely hot. Let alone not having food for 3 days, it is very difficult to tolerate hunger even for few hours. You feel hungry frequently. We got very weak & unable to speak due to the extremity of hunger & dehydration. @SFRCdems @SenateForeign @ChrisCoons

11/n
Then, they brought a camera & started filming us. After that, they gave each of us a single bread & one piece of banana. And then, they transported us to Woldia [in Amhara region].
@mukeshkapila @wdavison10 @DavidAltonHL @EU_Commission @Europarl_EN @eucopresident

12/n
We stayed at Woldia the whole night & then they started driving us to Afar. It was about 10 am when they stopped the buses & made us walk to a desert. @EUinEthiopia @Etomiuc @EUSR_Weber @EU_UNGeneva @USEmbassyAddis @AfricaMediaHub @USUN @SenateDems @StateDept @StateDeptSpox

13/n
In the middle of the hot sun in the desert, they kept beating us up on our legs, hands, & shoulders with sticks to which nails were fixed until 4 pm. We were on the brink of death due to the torture. And then they removed the handcuffs & gave some of us ...
@UKUN_NewYork

14/n
... uniforms that resemble that of the Tigray Special Forces. Then, they brought two persons [a cameraman & another one standing behind him] & started recording us. The police were asking, "where did you join the struggle? Where have you fought?

15/n
Where did you get captured?" Because we're extremely weak due to the excessive hunger, thirst, & physical torture, we couldn't speak & give answers to their questions. What was very surprising was that the person who was standing behind the camera was giving answers ...

16/n
... in Tigrinya to every question. His image was not being captured but his audio was recorded [while the cameraman was filming us]. Then they took us to another place which I don't exactly know but it is in Afar. They handed us over to Ethiopian troops. @helenhayes_

17/n
The troops, in turn, transferred us to other troops and told them that we were captured during a battle at Raya front. The latter trusted the former ones that we were captured at a battlefront. @SweinEthiopia @franceonu @KenyaMissionUN @irishmissionun @NorwayUN @EstoniaUN

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The latter are killing squads. They are there to kill "prisoners of war". Before killing you, they ask you for a ransom to free you alive. They ask you at least 150k ETB. @VietNam_UN @antonioguterres @HLundquist @LaetitiaBader @jbgallopin @FissehaTekle

19/n
If you pay them, they release you and then they disappear from the camp, too. But this happens only if the troops are Oromos or from Southern Ethiopia.
I will tell you the rest part of the story later.
>>

This completes the English translation to part 1 of his story.

20/n

If not now, then when is the international community going to intervene & stop the Ethiopian govt from abducting civilian #Tigrayans from across Ethiopia, shipping them to Afar, torturing & starving them in an extremely harsh weather condition?

21/n
Those who aren't lucky get executed in the deserts of Afar. Whereas, the luckiest ones are thrown to concentration camps. And then are coerced to speak scripted speeches as prisoners of war in front of a camera. Then live-streamed on national TVs.
#AbductedTigrayanCivilians

#AbductedTigrayanCivilians

https://twitter.com/GebremeskelGeb/status/1427271205460008967