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Zecharias Zelalem

I learned the identities of some of the doctors who were on the scene first. Most health centers have some satellite phone access, and their doctors are permitted to move around the region. When I contacted two of them, they made it clear that they were afraid to speak to me after receiving threats from the army.

Later, we learned from @humanrightswatch of an army campaign to silence and intimidate doctors, many of whom provided info on casualties to journalists.
hrw.org/report/2024/07/03/if-s

13 October at 1:05 | Open on dair-community.social
14 comments
Zecharias Zelalem

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.

maps.app.goo.gl/28Tm33bhbWs7YX
13 October at 1:09 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem

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.

13 October at 1:11 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem

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.
13 October at 1:17 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

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.
13 October at 1:22 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

I had done a bit of digging and came across some openly sourced documents, including an IOM village assessment done in 2022, likely to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries to the region. I was lucky...it contained a list of informal village names in the region, and their coordinates. I found a village named Fela, which was a name used by survivors I interviewed. The IOM listed these coordinates: 9.9448132 39.4190002

view.officeapps.live.com/op/vi

I had done a bit of digging and came across some openly sourced documents, including an IOM village assessment done in 2022, likely to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries to the region. I was lucky...it contained a list of informal village names in the region, and their coordinates. I found a village named Fela, which was a name used by survivors I interviewed. The IOM listed these coordinates: 9.9448132 39.4190002

13 October at 1:25 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

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.
13 October at 1:28 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

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.
13 October at 1:35 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

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.
13 October at 1:40 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

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.

13 October at 1:45 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

The only thing we were unable to do this time was humanize the victims by adding names & faces with their stories. They live in the warzone. Putting their names and faces out would have invited instant retaliation by a brutal government. Doing so was impossible this time, perhaps in the future.

FYI...it's the second time I feature testimony from this massacre's survivors. Two of them were featured in a story earlier this year I did for Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail.

theglobeandmail.com/world/arti

The only thing we were unable to do this time was humanize the victims by adding names & faces with their stories. They live in the warzone. Putting their names and faces out would have invited instant retaliation by a brutal government. Doing so was impossible this time, perhaps in the future.

FYI...it's the second time I feature testimony from this massacre's survivors. Two of them were featured in a story earlier this year I did for Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail.

13 October at 1:49 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

So yeah, that's the story of the cover:
"A war crime happened here." Really didn't need much explaining. The people in the picture, are dressed in traditional Ethiopian attire, white shawls. That's what we wear at celebrations. The dead were returning from a baby's baptism, and were all from two or three families. The picture depicts the moment before their white shawls were soaked in blood.
13 October at 1:54 | Open on dair-community.social
Zecharias Zelalem replied to Zecharias

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.
-ZZ.

africanews.com/2024/10/10/dr-c

13 October at 1:57 | Open on dair-community.social
LeuchtturmECK replied to Zecharias

@ZekuZelalem Thank you for your investigative work!

13 October at 16:10 | Open on mastodon.social
terna replied to Zecharias

thank you for this work, @ZekuZelalem it's vital.

13 October at 5:33 | Open on c.im
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