Chena Massacre: TPLF Massacred at Least 100, Mass Grave Uncovered

September 7, 2021

Amhara regional authorities have confirmed Chena massacre targeting innocent civilians in North Gondar, by TPLF fighters. Ethiopian Human Rights Commission yet to release report 

Borkena 

At least one hundred civilians are brutally massacred in Chena Teklehaymanot locality of Dabat District, North Gondar region of Ethiopia.  Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) carried out the massacre.  Two mass graves had been uncovered. 

Children, elders and women are among the victims. Six members of the same family are among the victims too.  Furthermore, priests who were in a service at Teklehaimanot Church were pulled from, and brutally killed. 

Amhara Regional State Communication Affairs Director, Gizachew Muluneh, has confirmed the massacre. 

In a press statement on the current affair, the director described what happened in Chena. He said, ” After it [TPLF] tasted the coordinated offensive of our heroes and learned that it could not resist them, it went house to house killing elders, women, children and priests from church after tying their hands back.” 

Mr. Gizachew expressed his fear that the terrorist TPLF group, it is the Ethiopian parliament that designated him as a terrorist organization, could carry out other massacres unless its demise is hastened. 

Activists who have been closely following development in the Amhara region seem to believe that several other massacres already took place in different towns and villages in the Amhara region that were controlled by the TPLF. 

Getachew Shiferaw, a prominent Ethiopian activists with a huge following on Facebook, although the giant tech company has been restricting him recurrently in what may Ethiopians say is a coordinated attack on those standing for Ethiopia’s cause, warns that what happened in Chena is just the tip of the iceberg. 

It is already known that the TPLF has committed widespread massacres in many other areas in the Amhara regions that it controlled after the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire at the end of June 2021. 

Getachew says civilians were massacred in Woldia, Kobo, Alamata,  Lalibela, Abergele, Maytemri, Gaint, Gashena and Mersa, among others towns. Regional authorities have not yet confirmed them, however. 

As was the case in all other massacres by TPLF, including in the Afar regions of Ethiopia, the victims from Chena are entirely innocent civilians. Unclear why the TPLF resolved to decimate them. 

Ethiopian Human Rights Council and Ethiopian Human Rights Commission have not yet released a statement regarding the massacre. 

TPLF has a history of massacring civilians in the aftermath of losing battles. That was what happened in Maikadra in November 2020 after losing a battle to the Ethiopian Defense Force. TPLF special units of the Youth commando, known as Samri, massacred over 1000 civilians in the town before the fee to Sudan where they were treated as asylum seekers. 

Citizen reports and a report by state media indicate that the TPLF has lost battles in Afar and Amhara regions of Ethiopia. Afar is entirely free from TPLF. 

In the Amhara regions, there are still areas that are under the TPLF control. It may mean, as indicated by government authorities and activists, that more massacres will happen or have already happened. 

International media outlets, however, demonstrated recurring omissions of atrocities by the TPLF in their coverage about the Ethiopian conflict.