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THREAD: My visual investigation of a drone massacre of 30+ people in Ethiopia is the cover story for today's @thecontinent digital paper. In this thread, I'll outline how we determined the precise location of a drone strike that happened in a war torn area cut off from the outside world. The illustration by the amazing Wynona Mutisi (yay for commissioning artists, nay for soulless AI!) depicts the final moments as described by survivors, who were riding aboard an Isuzu truck when it was hit. 24 comments
The drone massacre took place on February 19th. A few days later, the Ethiopian military, confident that none of the survivors were able to communicate with the outside world, issued a statement claiming that its forces carried out an operation that captured and killed "many" rebel forces. But days later, news reports based on eyewitness testimony began to emerge. The BBC and Reuters were among those who published initial reports, citing eyewitness accounts. To make matters worse for the Ethiopian army, a week or so after the drone strike, a 60 second video clip emerged on the web, depicting the aftermath of the the drone strike. Its contents are too gruesome to describe here without a content warning. Undated, unverified, it still went viral and provoked outrage. The problem with this atrocity, despite the emergence of a video, it was impossible to know for certain even where it took place. A few eyewitnesses described the approximate location. Journalists listed 3 or 4 different towns within a 30km radius where they suspected the massacre took place. With no concrete verification, as the months went by government supporters began denouncing the video as faked or old, and others simply declared news of an atrocity as a fabrication. A network of activists got the footage to me, but the person who captured it disappeared back into the region, and became unreachable by phone/internet. However, the photographs revealed details that were difficult to see in the blurry videos. Including that there were powerlines and electricity transmission towers parallel from where the truck was hit. Nevertheless, a doctor did confirm to me the hospital that they, the first only first responders to assist the victims, was located. They were staff of the Gawuna Hospital. This narrowed the search down considerably. The village of Gawuna isn't identifiable on most maps, the hospital for some reason, is. Here is where the hospital is located, in rural Amhara country. It serves all of the nearby villages. Eventually, I did manage to speak to eyewitnesses who described the site as a four way intersection near Gawuna. They said it was "near the village of Fela" or at the "Fela Turnabout." Problem is this is an informal name unavailable on any maps. But at least with the description, we could rule out many areas and narrow down the search even more. In this corner of rural Ethiopia, there aren't that many four way intersections. So with a bit of studying of the footage and of satellite imagery...voila, found a match! Barely a five minute drive from the Gawuna Hospital, this location on a road that cuts through rural Amhara country became the focus of our efforts. The electricity transmission towers seen in the footage appeared to be a match with what is seen at this location on Google Earth. The grass going green and brown at different times is simply due to the seasons. The atrocity took place in February, smack in the middle of Ethiopia's dry season. The Google Earth imagery was snapped in October, during Ethiopia's rainy season. There are noticeable differences every year that we are accustomed to seeing. Those coordinates placed the village precisely parallel to the four way intersection that we had identified earlier. For vehicles driving from west to east, the road to Fela village was literally a sharp turn right, meaning "Fela Turnabout," the description given to us, was pretty consistent with this location. Comparison of Google Earth imagery with photographs, and screengrabs from the video (considerably cropped to conceal graphic content) shows consistency, two transmission towers, dirt road leading to the village of Fela, which can be seen in the distance. This closeup of the spot at the intersection seen on Google Earth from October 3rd 2023, appears to show parked vehicles. It would be consistent with descriptions that survivors gave me of the location: as being a truck or bus stop for passengers to get off and walk to nearby villages. At this point, the evidence is overwhelming. This is where an Ethiopian air force drone cut down 30+ people on February 19th 2024. Why go to these lengths? For much of the past 8 months, victims have been told they are lying, or that their dead loved ones were armed fighters who got what was coming. That atrocity won't be erased from history. One day, when independent investigators are allowed to work freely, we can tell them where to begin their probe. Archiving atrocities today could enable justice tomorrow. This goes for Ethiopia, just as it does for Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere. So yeah, that's the story of the cover: Meanwhile, in unrelated news...Ethiopia was elected into the United Nations Human Rights Council this week. Once again, the impact of the proliferation of cheap drones sold by Iran, China, UAE and Turkey to authoritarian regimes with a promise of swift victory. Thank you for your time. https://www.africanews.com/2024/10/10/dr-congo-ethiopia-kenya-elected-to-human-rights-council/  @ZekuZelalem @ophiocephalic @thecontinent thank you! And yes, the picture left me mouth agape when I first saw it. That's the talented Wynona Mutisi....she never fails to deliver with her illustrations! @ZekuZelalem @thecontinent Thanks for sharing this important but difficult work with us. |
Gregory's Server
As I explained yesterday, documenting atrocities in Ethiopia's war in Amhara is extremely complex, because journalists are banned from any sort of critical reporting, and the war torn areas where atrocities take place are often cut off from the outside world, with the government cutting off communications to conceal its abuses. As such, news of this specific atrocity, which took place in February 2024, took a few days to emerge.
https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/113290316616549004