The air hung heavy with grief within the walls of Abu Aregawi Church in Mai-Kadra. It wasn't a celebration of life, but a solemn reckoning with its brutal end – a funeral for victims of a massacre, a community shattered by unimaginable loss.
These weren’t isolated deaths, but part of a larger, horrific chapter unfolding in northern Ethiopia. The two-year conflict in the Tigray region descended into atrocities that international observers now characterize as genocide against the Tigrayan people.
A recent report detailed a systematic campaign of terror. Ethiopian forces and their allies are accused of committing genocidal acts – mass killings weren’t random, but deliberate. They were coupled with starvation as a weapon and calculated efforts to suppress the future of an entire people.
The scale of the devastation is staggering. Over one million lives have been lost since 2020, a number that represents not just statistics, but individual stories extinguished too soon. The conflict unleashed a wave of unspeakable violence, leaving deep scars on the region.
Beyond the battlefield, a chilling pattern of sexual violence emerged. Reports detail horrific acts, accompanied by statements intended to inflict maximum psychological damage – a cruel assertion that Tigrayan women should be denied the possibility of motherhood.
The violence wasn’t confined to the Tigray conflict alone. In a separate, equally disturbing event, more than 500 Christians were murdered in coordinated attacks across homes, triggered by the death of a prominent Oromo singer. It was a dark day marked by targeted brutality and widespread fear.
Mai-Kadra, and the funerals held within Abu Aregawi Church, stand as a stark reminder of the human cost of conflict. They represent a plea for justice, accountability, and a future where such atrocities are never repeated.
