Korarit massacre

The Amhara Region Special Force and the Eritrean Defence Forces killed 98 civilians in Korarit (western Tigray) on the days before 27 November 2020.[1]

Selam, a 26-year-old farmer, fled her home in the central town of Korarit with her husband and children and hundreds of others in mid-November “because the Amhara special forces were beating and killing people”. The family walked for a month to reach safety.
— Jason Burke, Ethiopia: 1,900 people killed in massacres in Tigray identified, The Guardian, 1 April 2021[2]

Typical massacres committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers in the Tigray war are (1) revenge when they lose a battle; (2) to terrorise and extract information about whereabouts of TPLF leaders; (3) murder of suspected family members of TDF fighters; and (4) terrorising the Tigray society as a whole such as in case of mass killings in churches.[3] The Korarit massacre includes killings in Tsebri, a place nearby the Wolkayt sugar plantation, where conflicts for land pre-existed.[4]

Relatives and witnesses reported the perpetrators of this massacre and other war crimes in the area as being Eritrean and Amhara soldiers.[5]

Several refugees from different Tigray communities told the AP they watched or listened helplessly as women were taken away by Amhara or Eritrean fighters and raped. It was like taunting, said Adhanom Gebrehanis from Korarit village.

“They do these things openly to make us ashamed,” he said.

He described watching Eritreans pull aside 20 women from a group of Tigrayans and rape them.
— Cara Anna, ’Leave no Tigrayan’: In Ethiopia, an ethnicity is erased, Associated Press, 7 April 2021[5]

The “Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation” mentions 98 victims of this massacre.[1]

The “Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation”,[1] that documented this massacre received international media attention, particularly regarding its Annex A, that lists massacres in the Tigray War.[3][6][7][8]

After months of denial by the Ethiopian authorities that massacres occurred in Tigray, a joint investigation by OHCHR and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission was announced in March 2021.[9]

While the Ethiopian government promised that Eritrean troops will be pulled out from Tigray, the Eritrean government denies any participation in warfare in Tigray, let alone in massacres.[10]

• Murders and massacres in the Tigray War
• Timeline of the Tigray War – November 2021

• World Peace Foundation: Starving Tigray
• Tigray: Atlas of the humanitarian situation
• TGHAT: A compilation of the verified list of civilian victims from different sources