BY MESFIN TEGENU, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR – 02/23/24 5:52 PM ET
It has taken three weeks, but the world is slowly confirming the details and coming to grips with a shocking atrocity in Africa’s second most populous nation. In the Ethiopian village of Merawi, government soldiers massacred civilians in door-to-door house raids, then dumped the victims’ corpses in the street.
Government human-rights officials have now confirmed that at least 80 civilians were killed during the late-January onslaught in the northern region of Amhara, where troops loyal to the regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmad have been quelling an uprising. But the actual toll is likely much higher. Some reports estimate that as many as 150 were murdered by troops, including women and children, and at least one pregnant woman.
The only thing more horrifying than the statistical death toll is the shocking account of terror from those who survived. One resident, who lost his brother in the carnage, told the Guardian newspaper that soldiers were “barging into homes [and] smashing doors” in the aftermath of a skirmish between Ethiopian government forces and rebels. He said he personally knew of at least 45 fatalities.
An Orthodox priest who arrived in Merawi on Jan. 30 shortly after the massacre told the British publication that he had seen at least 50 dead bodies splayed across the village’s main highway, and that most “seem to have been killed execution-style, with a bullet wound to their heads.” Like the first eyewitness, this priest’s brother was also killed in the attack by troops who then stole his money and his phone.
The credible reports of these extrajudicial killings in Western news outlets have forced the government’s State of Emergency Investigative Board to acknowledge the incident in Merawi and launch an investigation. The probe comes after the U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, Ervin Massinga, said the American government is “deeply concerned” about recent events in Amhara and called on the government “to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Still, this shocking massacre has so far received scant attention, either in the U.S. media or from key policymakers back in Washington. This needs to change, and quickly. The growing crisis in Amhara is also an opportunity for the Biden administration, its Western allies and relief agencies to make good on their promises for a true partnership in Africa that puts human rights at the forefront.
The U.S., and the world, have been here before. Former president, Bill Clinton has stated that maybe his greatest regret from eight years in the Oval Office was his 1994 failure to intervene in Rwanda, where as many as 500,000 to 1 million were killed by genocidal militiamen. “I do feel a lifetime responsibility,” Clinton said of his administration’s inaction.