| Kobo massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Tigray War and TPLF invasion of the Amhara region | |
  Kobo | |
| Location | Kobo, Ethiopia |
| Coordinates | 12°11′51.07″N39°45′9.29″E / 12.1975194°N 39.7525806°E |
| Date | 9 September 2021 |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 600+ civilians |
| Perpetrators |  Tigray Defense Forces |
The Kobo massacre was an extrajudicial killing event perpetrated in Kobo district and Kobo town in North Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 9 September 2021. [1] [2]
Residents told VOA News that the TDF killed 600 civilians in Kobo in the Amhara Region. [3] According to locals, TDF fighters entered villages in Kobo district on 9 September searching for weapons, but armed farmers attacked the soldiers in the villages. As TDF fighters fled from the villages to Kobo town, they indiscriminately killed men who were working their fields in retaliation. [1] [2] [4] [5]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke to residents of Kobo town who witnessed 23 civilians summarily executed by the TDF in that town on 9 September in retaliation for attacks by farmers earlier that day. [2] [6]
A report by Al Jazeera described it as "the most extensive yet of one of the deadliest known killings of Amhara in the war." [5]
Amnesty International published a report in which witnesses described retaliatory summary executions of over two dozen men and one woman in the town of Kobo. Spatiotemporal satellite imagery analysis corroborated witness testimony that new graves were dug at two church compounds in the town to bury those summarily executed. [7]
The TDF has denied committing atrocities. [1]
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission expressed their concern regarding the incident on Twitter: [8] [9]
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is alarmed by disturbing reports it is receiving about allegations of deliberate attacks against civilians in Kobo town and surrounding rural towns by TPLF fighters including shelling on civilian areas, house to house search and killings, looting and destruction of civilian infrastructure. While EHRC continues with its investigation, it reiterates its repeated call on the obligation of all parties to the conflict to protect civilians at all times.
— Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
Kobo or Raya Kobo is a woreda in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Located in the northeast corner of the North Wollo Zone, Kobo is bordered on the south by the Logiya River which separates it from Habru and Guba Lafto, on the west by Gidan, on the north by Tigray Region, and on the east by the Afar Region. Towns in Kobo include Gobiye, Kobo and Robit.
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 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.
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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.
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.
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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).
The Galikoma massacre was an indiscriminate killing of civilians perpetrated by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) in the village of Galikoma in the Afar Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 5 August 2021. Galikoma is a village in the Gulina district of Fanti zone in Afar Region.
The Chenna massacre was a mass extrajudicial killing perpetrated by the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) in and around the village of Chenna Teklehaymanot in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, between 31 August and 4 September 2021.
The TDF–OLA joint offensive was a rebel offensive in the Tigray War and the OLA insurgency starting in late October 2021 launched by a joint rebel coalition of the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) against the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and government. The TDF and OLA took control of several towns south of the Amhara Region in the direction of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in late October and early November. Claims of war crimes included that of the TDF extrajudicially executing 100 youths in Kombolcha, according to deral authorities.
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.
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.
Since the 1990s, the Amhara people of Ethiopia have been subject to ethnic violence, including massacres by Tigrayan, Oromo and Gumuz ethnic groups among others, which some have characterized as a genocide. Large-scale killings and grave human rights violations followed the implementation of the ethnic-federalist system in the country. In most of the cases, the mass murders were silent with perpetrators from various ethno-militant groups—from TPLF/TDF, OLF–OLA, and Gumuz armed groups.
On 18 June 2022, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) was accused of massacring over 500 Amhara civilians in the Gimbi county of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Witnesses said that the OLA intentionally targeted ethnic Amhara people. This attack is part of a series of Amhara massacres that occurred in 2022.
The Kombolcha massacre was the mass extrajudicial and summary execution of over 100 ethnic Amhara civilian youths by the Tigray Defense Forces in South Wollo, in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Bodies of the victims were set on fire at a business compound in the town. Kombolcha was described as a key warring location and is found on the A2 highway leading into Addis Ababa, where the Tigrayan forces were advancing to the capital. Looting of aid, and private and public properties was also reported. Kombolcha town is the industrial hub of the Amhara region.
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