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self-published sources. (February 2022) |
Bora massacre | |
---|---|
Part of Tigray War | |
Location | Bora ( Tigrinya: ቦራ), Tigray Region, Ethiopia |
Date | 8 January 2021 |
Target | Tigrayans |
Attack type | |
Deaths | 187 civilians |
Perpetrators | Ethiopian National Defence Force |
The Bora massacre was a mass extrajudicial killing that took place in Bora ( Tigrinya: ቦራ) in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 8 January 2021, with aftermath killings that continued up to 10 January. [1] [2] [3] Bora is the capital town of woreda Bora-Selewa, Southern zone of Tigray.
A skirmish occurred between the TDF and ENDF on the morning of 8 January in the Ajale mountains, about 16 kilometres northeast of Bora. After the fighting, soldiers descended upon Bora. [2]
A massacre by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) then took place, in which the ENDF killed from 70 [4] to 170 civilians in Bora on 8-10 January 2021. [3] Soldiers went house to house in Bora and carried out the executions. After the killing, the soldiers stopped families from taking their dead. Burials were only permitted two days later; one person buried 26 corpses in the graveyard of the Abune Aregawi Church. [2] The executions mostly took the form of removing a man from his house, making him kneel, and shooting him in the head. [4] In the aftermath, the killing spree reached nearby villages Adi Shegla, Chamela and Chelena. [3]
A mother testified to the EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation that her son was executed in the 8 January massacre for being a suspected TPLF fighter. [4]
Survivors interpreted the identity of the perpetrators as Ethiopian soldiers. [2]
The “Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation” mentions 187 victims, [3] of which 64 have been identified. [5]
The "Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation", [3] that documented this massacre received international media attention, particularly with regard to its Annex A, which includes the Bora massacre. [6] [7] [8] [9]
Mulu Nega, the chief executive of Tigray's transitional government, and Daniel Bekele, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), did not respond to LA Times' requests for comment. [2] After months of denial by the Ethiopian authorities that massacres occurred in Tigray, the EHRC–OHCHR Tigray investigation was announced in March 2021, [10] and published its report on 3 November 2021. [4]