Thread by @althecat

This Tuesday Dec 13th, @AbiyAhmedAli will be received in the @WhiteHouse during an African Leaders Summit convened by @POTUS @JoeBiden.

Ethiopia PM Abiy's return to center stage, is more important than understood & will doubtless be controversial for he wrong reasons. THREAD

This thread provides additional data and context to this report, recorded in Alamata - in Raya, Tigray November 4th, 2 days after the signing of the Pretoria Peace Agreement.

The video shows my first walk through the grave site which we found at Alamata after we arrived in Tigray on Nov 3rd, on the first journalism trip to Tigray since TPLF's resumption of warfare on 24th August.

This >> scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2211… was published Nov. 13th during #COP27.

Thanks to the fantastic satellite sleuthery of @Dinlas3 we have an update on the story - confirming witness accounts wrt the timing of the mass grave's construction.

In the video above at 2.54 minutes I approach the shed you see in the satellite image above - with excavation equipment and two large holes in front of the shed.

We can now see that there are clearly 2 mass graves there. The 2nd marked with stakes.

This still from the video shows the area where the southernmost hole is located. Watching the video it seems possible the excation of the hole took place in an area bodies had already been burried.

From this starting point in the video you can see a pan across the northernmost of the two large holes in the satellite imagery. At the time I had no idea that there wer two holes. There is also recently disturbed ground in the foreground & a newer hole.

What is mosty important about this image however is what it tells us about the timing of construction. On December 4th 2021 TPLF was in control of Alamata, and it remained in control of Alamata untill two weeks before I arrived there on November 4th 2022.

This confirms witness accounts that the mass grave, a source of terror in the city of of Alamata belongs to the TPLF, and is not evidence as TPLF may soon try to claim of #TigrayGenocide, a claim which remains at the core of many media accounts of this war and TPLF propaganda.

This is the summary of my initial findings from my 13th November report, which is based on these witnesses testimony.

The claim that the mass grave was established after Op. Alula - the triumphant retaking of Mekelle by TPLF is critically important.

And Dinlas's satellite imagery research while not completely conclusive on this point is pretty clear. Theseimages show the site in March 21st 2021, before the rains - while Alamata was in control of the Govt. During the period that the #TigrayGenocide was supposedly occurring.

Here we see January 11th 2022. Same spot. By then the two holes close to the shed are filled. And given the timing, filled during the TPLF's retreat which by December 4th had begun.

TPLF announced a "withdrawal" of its forces to Tigray on Dec 21st ending a destructive "revenge" invasion of Amhara whch began on July 13th 2021, during which the great bulk of the lives were lost in this conflict: civilians, TPLF forces/child soldiers & ENDF & ASF.

The limited imagery we have from 2021 is constrained by the rains which came fairly early in 2021 around April and were strong through to September. But we can see from the Dec4th images that the site was already completely full at the time the two large holes were dug.

And the video shows significant numbers of relatively fresh graves dug in the period since. Locals put the number burried there at at least 3000 - and this figure could be very conservative. Witnesses report seeing lots of Sinotrucks entering the site carrying bodies.

The satellite imagery now suggests that the graveyard wasn't big enough to take all the bodies, leading in December to a scramble by the TPLF to expand capacity including digging up areas in which people had already been burried.

As I am unlikely to complete my full account of my visit to Alamata in time for the Washington DC African Leaders summit - advance release of this new information seemed important. My thanks to @Dinlas3 whose work made this possible.

The above does not include all of the findings from the satellite imagery, investigation of which is continuing. The imagery here - and some not yet published - belongs to @Dinlas3 and anyone else wishing to use it should contact him.

@Dinlas3 /ends @threadreaderapp unroll