A few scattered human
bones lay on the rocky ground, along with a broken skull and several
half-burned identification cards.
That is all the
villagers could find, six months after Ethiopian troops rounded up their loved
ones and shot them at point-blank range, throwing the bodies off a rocky
hillside deep in the mountains of central Tigray in Ethiopia.
An April 2021 CNN
investigation, in collaboration with Amnesty International, examined video
clips of the January massacre and used geolocation techniques to verify the
video was filmed on a ridge near Mahibere Dego in January 2021. The
investigation revealed at the time that at least 11 unarmed men were executed,
and 39 others were unaccounted for.
CNN was sent the
gruesome footage in March this year by a pro-Tigray media organization, the
Tigrai Media House (TMH). TMH told CNN at the time that the video was filmed on
a mobile phone by an Ethiopian army soldier turned whistleblower involved in
the mass killing.
An additional longer
video clip of the massacre has now been shared with CNN by TMH, revealing new
details about the atrocity and the soldiers behind it.
CNN used geolocation
techniques to determine the extended footage was also filmed at the ridge near
Mahibere Dego. A voice at the end of the new clip identifies the Ethiopian
soldier filming the video as "Fafi." He also reveals his military
brigade and division.
In the extended video
seen by CNN, Fafi swaps the phone with another soldier, takes the gun and
shoots. The phone is then swapped back as others clamor to be filmed executing
the captives, brazenly documenting their crimes.
This extended footage
has all the hallmarks of a trophy video and yet -- despite the evidence -- the
Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office dismissed the findings of CNN's original
investigation saying, "Social media posts and claims cannot be taken as
evidence."
Six months after the attack, two people in Mahibere Dego told CNN they had collected the national
identification cards of 36 people who were killed, but another 37 people remain
missing, indicating the toll of the massacre could have been more than double
what was initially reported.
CNN reached out to the
Ethiopian government but it did not respond.
Ethiopia is under
growing international pressure over a number of reported atrocities in its
war-torn northern Tigray region that could amount to war crimes.
Thousands of civilians
are believed to have been killed since early November, when Prime Minister Abiy
Ahmed launched a major military operation against the ruling Tigray People's
Liberation Front (TPLF), sending in national troops and militia fighters from
Ethiopia's Amhara region.
CNN has previously
compiled extensive eyewitness testimony that Ethiopian soldiers and soldiers
from neighboring Eritrea were perpetrating massacres, extrajudicial killings,
sexual violence and other abuses in the region.
Since January, families of the victims in Mahibere Dego say they have been unable to access the ridge due to the continued presence of Ethiopian troops in the area -- leaving them without a way to bury their loved ones.
But last Friday, the
soldiers departed for nearby Axum, giving locals a long-awaited opportunity to
search for any remains, according to nine people CNN interviewed who had
visited the massacre site.
Over a period of days,
family members of the victims filmed the church burials, documented evidence of
bullet casings at the massacre site and took photographs of skeletal remains
which they sent to CNN. We are not naming the family members who fear for their
safety.
One family member told
CNN that even while villagers were gathering up the remains of their loved
ones, the area came under attack. Violence in Tigray has once again intensified
in recent weeks after Tigrayan forces launched a renewed offensive last week.
Even after Ethiopian
soldiers withdrew, the massacre site remained under attack.
"The soldiers from
Axum started to bomb the area with artillery [fire] around 9-10 p.m. Everyone
scattered and ran back home," the family member said.
But the villagers
refused to stay away, he said, waiting a few days to come back at night to
finish what they had started.
In images too graphic
to publish, it's clear the remains were too decomposed to allow for
identification of the victims -- for some there were only metal belt buckles.
Families said they instead relied on items of clothing and ID cards to identify
their relatives.
Villagers told CNN the
continued presence of soldiers in the area was an attempt to hide evidence of
the killings.
Images of bullet
casings found by villagers as they scoured the area for their relatives'
remains, were shared with CNN. An arms expert told CNN these would normally be
used in light machine guns and assault rifles like those seen in the massacre
video.
CNN used geolocation to
verify that the video of the bullet casings was from the same massacre site.
CNN also obtained
images taken on June 21 that show bones, charred remains, clothes and ID cards
at site of the attack. Some of the clothes were also seen in the original video
clips investigated by CNN.
Families brought the
remains they could find to Mariam Megdelawit church, a few kilometers from the
massacre site, for an emotional ceremony where they prayed for justice, and to
heal their loss on June 21.
Video sent to CNN by
family members of the victims show the bones of victims being carried into the
service in large jute bags and placed together while crowds gathered in a
circle around them to mourn and weep.
"The village
couldn't wait any longer, [they were] saying 'we can't get peace unless we bury
them,'" he said.
CNN geolocated the
footage of the ceremony by matching it to satellite imagery of the area that
showed the same church structure, vegetation layout, soil color and topography.
Sunlight in the footage
indicates that the burials took place at approximately 9 a.m. This corresponded
to the timings stored in metadata, which some of the footage retained.
Many of those targeted
in the extrajudicial executions were young men of so-called "fighting
age."
One of the young men
executed in the massacre was 23-year-old Alula. His brother told CNN he
discovered Alula's ID card amid the remains.
CNN first reported on
Alula in April when his brothers discovered his fate while watching a TV report
about the massacre. At the time, another one of Alula's brothers told CNN it
was hard to accept.
Though the family says they have been unable to find his remains, Alula's ID card is enough, they say, to give them some closure.
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