Battle of Humera

Battle of Humera
	Part of the Tigray War
	Humera
Date	9–11 November 2020
Location	Humera, Tigray Region, Ethiopia
Result	Ethiopian victory TPLF abandons Humera; Ethiopia takes control of Humera;
Belligerents
Ethiopia ; Eritrea	Tigray Region
Commanders and leaders
Abiy Ahmed ; (Prime Minister of Ethiopia); Mohammed Tessema ; (Head of the army's indoctrination division)	Debretsion Gebremichael ; (Chief Administrator of Tigray Region and TPLF Chairman)
Units involved
Ethiopian National Defense Force	Local militia; Tigray Special Forces (10 November only)
Strength
Unknown	~400
Casualties and losses
1+ killed; 6+ wounded	Several wounded
	92 killed in total (including deaths from the Humera massacre); 46 Civilians killed; ~200 Civilians wounded

Last updated April 28, 2024

The Battle of Humera was fought between Ethiopia and allied forces against forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the city of Humera during the Tigray War. The battle took place from 9 to 11 November 2020, and is the first recorded time Eritrean troops saw action. It also led to the Humera massacre when Amhara and Ethiopian troops started beating and killing civilians. Many more civilians were killed and wounded because of the shelling during the battle. After it was controlled by the Eritrean, Ethiopian and Amhara (Fano, Amhara Special Forces and Militia) started house in house search detained everyone they found, loot every house and put the people in concentration camps. Day by day the Amhara forces killed the residents they put in the concentration camps, and dumped the bodies over the bridge into Tekeze River.

Prelude

According to a local militia member, the Tigray special forces had already left the city under militia control before the battle began. The Tigray special forces were needed in other towns and city in western Tigray. No significant defensive systems were set up and most militia forces were stationed along the Tekeze River with AK47 assault rifles, machine guns, and snipers.^[1]

Battle

Ground fighting

Soon after, the federal forces began an exchange of gun fire with local militias at a camp near the Eritrean border. At least one federal soldier was killed when he ran across the Tekeze bridge toward Eritrea. Both forces were wounded.^[1] On 10 November, federal forces captured the Humera Airport.^[4] On the same day, the local militias opened machine gun fire at the soldiers crossing the Tekeze bridge from Eritrea into Ethiopia. The Tigray special forces came back to Humera to support the militias by firing into Eritrea with heavy weaponry, but it once again abandoned the militias and moved onto central Tigray.^[1]

Commenting on the siege, the President of the Tigray region, Debretsion Gebremichael said:

Since yesterday, the army of [Eritrean leader] Isaias [Afwerki] have crossed the country’s boundary and invaded. They were attacking via Humera using heavy arms.

Eritrea denied involvement in the war but later, its involvement was confirmed by the USA.^[5]^[4]

On 11 November, the local militias lost control of the city.^[1]^[2]

Shelling

Shelling of Civilians

Shellfire from Camp Heligan, located at the outskirts of Humera, engulfed the area on the morning of 9 November. Shelling from Eritrea killed and wounded civilians, and damaged various structures. It continued until the evening and resumed on the morning of 10 November.^[1]

According to the doctors at the Kahsay Aberra hospital, around 200 civilians were wounded and 46 were killed in the heavy shelling. Many doctors fled to nearby towns or Sudan. One doctor said:^[1]

Civilians started arriving in the hospital with injuries to the abdomen, chest, head. We were at a loss ... People with no hands, people with their stomachs hanging out. This continued the whole day. I don't know how he did it, but a young boy brought a woman to the hospital; her intestines were out. He had tried to tie a scarf around her waist. We somehow managed to stitch her up.

Other staff members transported around 50 injured people to Adebay while many were left behind.^[3]

Shelling of military targets

The shells did hit some military targets, as found by the Human Rights Watch, such as the China camp and a Tigray special forces abandoned jail turned military camp.^[1]

Aftermath

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) visited the towns of Dansha, Humera, and Mai Kadra from 14 to 18 November. They found that after the city was taken by federal forces on 11 November, a youth group calling itself Fano, some members of the Amhara Region Special Force, and Amhara Militia entered the city. Along with a few ENDF and EDF soldiers, they looted houses and businesses, and harassed ethnic Tigray residents. According to the staff at Kahsay Aberra hospital, women have also been raped.^[6] Residents and refugees from Humera reported killings of civilians by the Fano and some ENDF troops.^[7]^[8]^[9] The Amhara Special Force and Amhara Militia have taken measures to keep peace inside the city but looting still goes on at night.^[6]

The EHRC was unable to access an area called Kebele 2 where most of the shelling damage took place, but the EHRC was able to visit the Kahsay Aberra hospital which sustained serious damage during the shelling. An employee working there told them that at least 92 people (Including ENDF, TPLF, and civilians) had been killed during the war. Some of them died while receiving treatment at the hospital. The hospital had very little medical staff and didn't have any sufficient supply of medicines and medical equipment. There were only 5 people working there and only one of them was a doctor. This is a major downgrade from the hospital's pre-war 457 employees. The hospital was left without food and water.^[6]

During the EHRC's visit to Tigray in mid-December, they learned that the hospital went up to 116 staff including 5 doctors. The EHRC were not able to access Humera though.^[6]

Related Research Articles

The Western Zone is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is subdivided into three woredas (districts); from north to south they are Kafta Humera, Welkait and Tsegede. The largest town is Humera. The Western Zone is bordered on the east by the North Western Zone, the south by the Amhara Region, the west by Sudan and on the north by Eritrea. Starting from the late 17th C., internal boundaries are clearly shown, with 37 maps displaying a boundary that is located well south of the Tekeze River, or even south of the Simien mountains. Welkait is explicitly included within a larger Tigray confederation ; it is briefly mapped as part of Amhara in 1891-1894 and part of Gondar from 1944-1990. At other periods it appears independent or part of a larger Mezaga lowland region.

Humera is a town in the Kafta Humera woreda in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Western Zone the town has an elevation of 585 metres (1,919 ft) above sea level. The Tekezé river borders the town to the north. Humera is a very important regional agricultural center based on intensive agriculture. It is the last Ethiopian town south of the border with Eritrea and Sudan, and is considered to be a strategically important gateway to Sudan.

The Tigray War was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between forces allied to the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the other.

The Mai Kadra massacre was a massacre and ethnic cleansing carried out during the Tigray War on 9–10 November 2020 in the town of Mai Kadra in Welkait in northwestern Ethiopia, near the Sudanese border. Responsibility was attributed to a pro-TPLF youth group and forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the EHRC-OHCHR Tigray Investigation, preliminary investigations by Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), and interviews conducted in Mai Kadra by Agence France-Presse. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and EHRC reported that at least 5 Tigrayans were killed in Mai Kadra by Amhara militas such as Fano in retaliation. Tigrayan refugees in Sudan told multiple news outlets that Tigrayans in Mai Kadra were targeted by either Amhara militias, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), or both.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a national human rights institution (NHRI) established by the Ethiopian government. The EHRC is charged with promoting human rights and investigating human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The EHRC states organizational independence as one of its values. In October 2021, the EHRC's rating by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions for operation in accordance with the UN Paris Principles was upgraded from grade B to grade A.

This timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.

Fano is an ethno-nationalist Amhara militia and former protest movement. It has engaged in violent clashes throughout Ethiopia in the name of neutralizing perceived threats to the Amhara people. Fano has absorbed many units and personnel of the Amhara Regional Special Forces that did not integrate into the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF). Fano militias are have been involved in armed conflicts with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), and the ENDF. They have also clashed with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on the border of Ethiopia and Sudan.

On 3–4 November 2020, forces loyal to the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) launched attacks on the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle and bases in Adigrat, Agula, Dansha, and Sero in the Tigray Region, marking the beginning of the Tigray War. The Ethiopian federal government stated that these attacks justified the ENDF's military action against the TPLF, which, at the time the attacks occurred, held control over the Tigray Region. The TPLF described the action as "a pre-emptive strike."

The Axum massacre was a massacre of about 100–800 civilians that took place in Axum during the Tigray War. The main part of the massacre occurred on the afternoon and evening of 28 November 2020, continuing on 29 November, with smaller numbers of extrajudicial killings taking place earlier, starting from 19 November and during the weeks following the 28–29 November weekend. The massacre was attributed to the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) by Amnesty International, Associated Press, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Adigrat University lecturer Getu Mak.

The Adigrat massacres were mass extrajudicial killings by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) that took place in and near Adigrat in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during late 2020 during the Tigray War. These included 86 civilians killed in Zalambessa around 13 November 2020, 8–15 in Hawzen on 25 November, 80–150 at the Maryam Dengelat church near Idaga Hamus on 30 November.(more than thousand Tigreans massacred by Eritrean troops in Axum on 27 Nov 2020)

Casualties of the Tigray War refers to the civilian and military deaths and injuries in the Tigray War that started in November 2020, in which rape and other sexual violence are also widespread. Precise casualty figures are uncertain. According to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium, as many as 600,000 people had died as a result of war-related violence and famine by late 2022. The scale of the death and destruction led The New York Times to describe it in November 2022 as "one of the world’s bloodiest contemporary conflicts."

All sides of the Tigray War have been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes since it began in November 2020. In particular, the Ethiopian federal government, the State of Eritrea, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Amhara regional forces have been the subject of numerous reports of both war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Events in Hawzen in the Tigray War included five mass extrajudicial killings that took place in Hawzen in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War in November and December 2020 and January and February 2021, looting and destruction Hawzen Primary Hospital by the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF), and the establishment of a rape camp in the hospital by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tigray Defense Forces</span> Nationalist armed group in Ethiopia

The Tigray Defense Forces, colloquially called the Tigray Army is a paramilitary group located in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. It was founded by former generals of the Ethiopian Military in 2020 to combat federal forces enforcing national government mandates in the Tigray region, culminating in 2020 with the outbreak of the Tigray War. The TDF has made use of guerilla tactics and strategies. Human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported that the TDF has committed war crimes against civilians including gang rape and extrajudicial killing during their occupation of both the Afar and Amhara regions. According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Justice, TDF combatants have been found liable for upwards of 540 civilians casualties. as of 28 December 2021.

Following the 2018 dissolution of the ethnic federalist, dominant party political coalition, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, there was an increase in tensions within the country, with newly resurgent regional and ethnically based factions carrying out armed attacks on military and civilians in multiple conflicts throughout Ethiopia.

The Humera massacre was an ethnic mass murder event carried out in November 2020 in the town of Humera in the Tigray Region of northwestern Ethiopia, next to the Sudanese border. The massacre took place during an armed conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal government of Ethiopia. Refugees attributed the massacre to Amhara militias, including Fano, and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).

This Timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.

On 26 November 2021, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and its allies had begun an offensive to recapture territory in the Amhara and Afar regions being occupied by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF). Afar and Amhara militias had mobilized thousands of fighters and joined the new offensive. The ENDF and its allies were able to push TDF forces back from Debre Sina, Amhara to Alamata, Tigray (≈400 km). The Ethiopian government announced the campaign for national unity was a success and had been completed on 23 December 2021.

The War in Amhara is an armed conflict in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia that began in April 2023 between the Amhara regional forces along with the Fano militia, and the Ethiopian government. The conflict began after the Ethiopian military raided the Amhara Region to disarm the Amhara Special Forces and other regional allies, which resulted in resistance of local armed forces and a series of protests in Gondar, Kobo, Sekota, Weldiya and other cities on 9 April.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Ethiopia: Unlawful Shelling of Tigray Urban Areas". Human Rights Watch . 11 February 2021. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
1 2 "Ethiopia bombs Tigray arms depots, thousands flee fighting". France 24. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
1 2 "Tigray crisis: How Ethiopian doctors fled militia attacks". BBC News. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
1 2 "Ethiopian military seizes airport as fighting rages in Tigray". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
↑ "Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: US calls for Eritrea troops to withdraw". BBC News. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
1 2 3 4 Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (18 January 2021). "Brief Monitoring Report on the Situation of Civilians in Humera, Dansha and Bissober". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
↑ Brown, Will (23 November 2020). "After the bombs they attacked with knives, claim Ethiopians fleeing peace prize winner's war". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
↑ Akinwotu, Emmanuel (2 December 2020). "'I saw people dying on the road': Tigray's traumatised war refugees". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
↑ Latif Dahir, Abdi (9 December 2020). "Fleeing Ethiopians Tell of Ethnic Massacres in Tigray War". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2020.

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[HRW_unlawful_shelling-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Ethiopia: Unlawful Shelling of Tigray Urban Areas". Human Rights Watch . 11 February 2021. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.

[France24_ET_bombs-2] 1 2 "Ethiopia bombs Tigray arms depots, thousands flee fighting". France 24. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.

[BBC_doctors_fled-3] 1 2 "Tigray crisis: How Ethiopian doctors fled militia attacks". BBC News. 17 December 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.

[AJE_seizes_airport-4] 1 2 "Ethiopian military seizes airport as fighting rages in Tigray". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 14 February 2021.

[5] "Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: US calls for Eritrea troops to withdraw". BBC News. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.

[EHRC_Humera_Dansha_Bissober-6] 1 2 3 4 Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (18 January 2021). "Brief Monitoring Report on the Situation of Civilians in Humera, Dansha and Bissober". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2021.

[telegraph_11_23-7] Brown, Will (23 November 2020). "After the bombs they attacked with knives, claim Ethiopians fleeing peace prize winner's war". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.

[Guard_people_dying-8] Akinwotu, Emmanuel (2 December 2020). "'I saw people dying on the road': Tigray's traumatised war refugees". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.

[NYT_massacres_by_Amharans-9] Latif Dahir, Abdi (9 December 2020). "Fleeing Ethiopians Tell of Ethnic Massacres in Tigray War". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 9 December 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2020.

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