“The six-month bullet fence”: the voice of armed conflict survivors in Kobo and Agamsa districts, Amhara region of Ethiopia

Abstract

Following the politically motivated and ethnically induced war, Tigray People Liberation Front political and militia groups inflicted a deliberate massacre of civilians in the Kobo and Agamsa districts of the Amhara region. This study aimed to examine the attacks perpetrated in war-torn districts of the Amhara region on civilians. To this end, a qualitative method with a phenomenological study design was used. The purposive sampling technique was employed to select 15 participants. An in-depth interview and non-participant observation were used as data collection techniques and thematic analysis was employed. The findings revealed that, Amharas in both the Kobo and Agamsa districts were horrifically killed, and massacred, deliberately to cause death, harm, and genocide. Through kidnapping and hostage-taking, women and teenage girls were found to be sexual violence as a weapon of war with experienced gang rape that caused abortion and complicated reproductive health problems. Survivors of the massacre also experienced humiliation and dehumanization. Over seventy-three homes and properties were ruined in the Agamsa district, which significantly affected the livelihood of survivors. Vandalism of private and public properties, and institutions was the mantra of the massacre. Within the framework of the Convention against Genocide, the massacre is argued to be a war crime and a crime against humanity that caused a severe human rights violation and humanitarian crisis upon civilians including, ethnic-based displacement, migration, social unrest, economic insecurity, forced prostitution, and trauma. Overall, the intent of the massacre had psychological and sociological impacts that targeted the socio-cultural values and history of the ethnic Amhara.

Impact Statement

Ethnic Amhara has been socio-economically and politically affected with and without armed conflicts and wars in the past forty years. On basics, the politically motivated war by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and the Central government of Ethiopia through Abiy Ahmed Administration deliberately leads the civilians of the Amhara ethnic group into massacre, vandalism, sexual violence and Genocide in different districts (e.g. Chienna, Maikadra, Ataye, Merssa, Kobo, and Agamsa areas) of Amhara region. Accordingly,a study on the consequences of these atrocities on the socio-economic fabric of Amharas with particular emphasis on the voice of armed conflict survivors would considerably support the Amhara people, Amhara Advocacy groups and organizations, government and non-government institutions, policymakers, academicians and concerned stakeholders who are working on humanitarianism and community development and policy interventions. The findings of this study will also benefit the national and international organizations to take necessary steps and consider their strategies to ensure the socio-economic and political needs of war-torn survivors of civilians.

Keywords:

• Genocide
• armed conflict
• war
• violence
• ethnic Amhara

Reviewing Editor:

• Samuel Adu-Gyamfi, History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology College of Arts and Social Science, Kumasi, Ghana

Subjects:

• Conflict Resolution
• War & Conflict Studies
• Anthropology – Soc Sci
• Sociology & Social Policy
• Criminology and Criminal Justice

Introduction

History of humankind has never been free from small- and large-scale wars that resulted in devastations and human losses accounted for massacres, crimes against humanity and genocide. For instance, historically recorded significant cases of the 20^th and 21^st centuries (i.e. Armenian Genocide, Jewish Holocaust, Genocide in East Pakistan, Mayan Genocide, Kurdish Genocide, Tutsi Genocide, Bosnian Genocide, Darfur Genocide, and Yazidi Genocide) were accompanied by an inter-nation or intra-nation wars Raphael Lemkin, a coiner of the term genocide, states that wars lead to atrocities as observed in the WWII that amounted to genocide massacres. Hence, he confirms that war, massacre and genocide are usually connected. Massacre and genocide became predictable during the war times through the violence and unleashing of physical aggression (Fein, 2000).

Socializing violence results in diminishing psychological and social inhibitions and replacement of blood-lust which could involve the intentional massacre of civilians (Markusen & Kopf, 1995). Because parties get into war as Martin Shaw (2007) explains, to attack social groups identified as ‘enemies’ and thus, justifiably use violence, including massacre, comprehensively and systematically.

Perpetrators socialize cruelty and find it easier to kill the enemy as they pass through the dehumanizing and ‘othering’ social or political systems. As demonstrated in numerous wars, both recent and historical, dehumanization is a ‘universal prerequisite of mass violence, massacre, and genocide’ (Dwyer, 2013). This is due to the fact that, it involves ‘exclusion…and depersonalization which normalize and routinize behavior toward another or a group of others that would otherwise be recognized as atrocious and unimaginable’ (Hughes, 2002).

Studies show that, systems that rely on the dichotomic and antagonistic view of groups, usually find justifications to dehumanize and inflict attacks, including genocide against the perceived ‘others’. As Waller contends, a cultural framework that ostensibly places more emphasis on an individual identity distinction than communality progressively encourages genocide. Hence, ‘othering’ mindsets would base differences i.e. tribalism, ethnicity, or religion, and mark identifications to target minorities. For instance, Rohingyas’ have faced systematic discrimination and are subject to ethnic cleansing and massacre for being religious minorities in the Rakhine State of Myanmar (Bachman, 2020). Since the atrocities involved massacres and genocide, the case was taken to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violations of the Convention against Genocide (CAG) 1948. Apart from ethnic and tribal differences in Kenya and Uganda, historical narratives, practices, rituals, and traditions of many indigenous and place-based peoples are inextricably linked to their land base and now they are facing an ecologically induced genocide in which environmental destruction results in living conditions that fundamentally threaten a social group’s cultural and physical survival (Crook & Short, 2021).

The divisive mindset rooted in historical animosity (Dutton et al., 2005), leads to the exposure of social groups identified as an enemy for massacre and genocide (Shaw, 2015). Before the 1962 genocide, Hutus of Rwanda were marginalized and designed to do inferior jobs while Tutsis had a more privileged status in political, educational, and economic spheres (Amnesty International, 2004). In the Ethiopian case, Amharas have been reduced to a disposable ethnic group in Ethiopia, similar to the Tutsi (Moges, 2021). Since 1991, Amharas have been associated with the regimes of the past, and labeled as ‘Neftegna’ (military people). Thus, Amharas living in other regions, particularly in the Oromia Regional State have been slaughtered, massacred, and targeted for ethnic cleansing. As Habtamu and Eissen’s (2018) study shows, genocidal actions against ethnic minorities were inflicted in Oromia and Omo Valley of the Southern Regional States of Ethiopia. Similarly, the Human Rights Watch report republished by the Ecologist (2014) mentioned that a ‘slow genocide’ is unfolding in Ethiopia after the 20 years of the Rwandan genocide.

Merciless crimes against Amharas have been committed by TPLF and OLF (terrorists as labeled by the Ethiopia Government) groups over civilians and registered 47 human rights violation incidents in 2021. Massacre of hundreds of civilians, gang rape, gender-based and sexual assault that include children, robbery, and vandalism of properties were among the atrocities inflicted by the TPLF invaders against civilian Amharas (Amhara Association of America, 2022). The Amnesty International Canada 2022 report also confirmed that, TPLF invaders massacred innocent Amharas, and robbed and destroyed both public and private properties including personal belongings in Kobo and Agamsa districts. Since the TPLF Army has invaded and sized these districts for more than six (6) months, outrageous atrocities and attacks were streamed in both local and national media, and condemned by human rights organizations. However, the intensity of the atrocities inflicted, and the perspectives and experiences of the survivors have not been studied yet. Therefore, this study investigated the nature of atrocities and attacks, and multifaceted consequences from the perspective of the survivors in the Kobo and Agamsa districts in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.

Research method

Study design

The study was conducted in the Kobo and Agamsa war-torn districts in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. According to Creswell (2007), qualitative research is a means to understand the meaning individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem, the research process involves emerging questions and procedures. Accordingly, the study adopted a qualitative method of inquiry to know people’s the meanings, perceptions, views, and experiences towards a particular phenomenon.

The research employed a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) requires the researcher to attend to the participants’ lives and then develop interpretations that help to explain what it is to be like that person in a particular context. It acknowledges that any insights gained from the analysis of a text will necessarily be a product of interpretation. Thus, through IPA, participants’ lives will be understood (Carpente, 2009). Meaning-making in this sense is something fluid, continuously open to new insight, revision, interpretation, and reinterpretation. It is true that, thematically, participants can experience components of the phenomena of interest similarly but interpret them differently (Miller, Chan & Farmer, 2018). Therefore, IPA was selected because of its commitment to exploring, describing, interpreting, and situating the participants’ sense-making of their experience over the six-month war in the study area.

Sampling techniques

As it is a qualitative study, the study depends on non-probability sampling strategies, which are qualitative in nature (Creswell, 2007). Based on the data saturation principle, purposive sampling was used to select 15 war survivor participants for this study. Purposive sampling is virtually synonymous with qualitative research and is the most commonly used sampling strategy in the phenomenological approach (Given, 2008). Its crucial feature is selecting sample units based on the prescribed and known characteristics, such as experience, behavior, roles, etc., that are relevant to the research topic (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003). It is used to select persons with knowledge and experience of the phenomena and information-rich cases for addressing the topic being studied (Bloor & Wood, 2006), and for the most effective use of limited resources (Patton, 2002).

Data collection methods

The literature shows that the in-depth interview method is the most common data collection method in phenomenological research. Moser and Korstjens (2018) argue that face-to-face in-depth interviews are the only suitable data collection method. Thus, this study employed an in-depth interview data collection method because the phenomenological approach focuses on examining and understanding the lived experience of participants (Bolderston, 2012; Moser & Korstjens, 2018; Smith, 2004). Palmer et al., (2010), added that it is difficult to understand and examine a person’s lived experience without face-to-face contact. In addition, it is more effective and less structured, helping to create a comfortable environment for the participant and having realistic information (Showkat & Parveen, 2017).

In addition, this study employed non-participant observation as a data collection method because participants may behave differently during the interview than usual. On the other hand, the researchers had a chance to observe all the observable destruction that happened to the villagers of a data collection area. Creswell (2012) noted that observation in a setting is a particular skill that requires addressing issues such as the potential deception of the people being interviewed, impression management, and the potential marginality of the researcher in a strange setting. Given the topic sensitivity, ethical considerations are of utmost importance during interview with war survivors (UN, 2014). Hence, ethical approval was received from one of the University Institutional Review Board (IRB) in Ethiopia. Moreover, the researcher followed WHO (2007) Ethical and Safety Recommendations for exploring sensitive topics.

Data analysis techniques

This study used the thematic data analysis technique. The thematic analysis technique is the key data analysis technique for phenomenological studies (Bloor & Wood, 2006; Given, 2008). The study followed the phenomenological data analysis procedures of Patterson and Williams (2000), and the phenomenological research analytical procedures, which were reviewed, by Creswell (2007) and Moser and Korstjens (2018). Thematic analysis is a data reduction and analysis strategy by which qualitative data are segmented, categorized, summarized, and reconstructed to captures the important concepts within the data set (Creswell, 2012).

Therefore, the data analysis process relies on data collection, pre-coding, coding, transcription, pattern categorization, thematization, and interpretation. The information obtained from in-depth interviews was recorded with the study participants approval, and transcribed from Amharic to English and analyzed thematically. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze, and synthesize the main topics of categorized data gathered through systematic observation and in-depth interviews.

More importantly, through bracketing, the researchers started data analysis by assembling the interview data from war survivors and transcribing all the audio records and field notes. Data analysts go through the data transcriptions and highlight significant statements, sentences, or quotes that provide an understanding of how the participants experienced the war. These processes reduce redundant and similar information to meaningful information and group it into categories. The researchers then analyzes the data by reducing the information to significant statements or quotes and combines the statements into themes. Following that, the researcher develops a textural description of the experiences of the war survivors, a structural description of their experiences (how they experienced it in terms of the conditions, Situations, or context), and a combination of the textural and structural descriptions to convey an overall essence of the war (Giorgi, 2009; Moustakas, 1994).

Findings and interpretation

Demographic description of participants

As the demographic characteristics of this study showed, most participants are adults. The great majority of participants are adults. Nine of the participants are residents of Kobo, and the other six are from Agamsa. Regarding marital status, seven participants were married followed by three widowed, three separated and two single. All fifteen participants are members of the Amhara ethnic group. Nine participants were Orthodox Christians, while the other six were Muslims. Regarding educational level, most participants did not have formal education followed by a diploma, degree and basic elementary, and high-school education.

Nature of atrocities on survivors in Kobo and Agamsa districts in Amhara region of Ethiopia

Nature of civilian massacre and attacks

Mounting evidences, including reports of the survivors’ testimony, showed that TPLF has cruelly slaughtered thousands of Amharas in the Kobo and Agamsa districts. Immediately after the territorial expansion and control of these adjacent districts, which are located in the Amhara regional state, terrible civilian massacres and attacks have been reported since 22 July 2021. Innocent civilians were reported to be targeted for attack both in public places (i.e. marketplaces) and hunted from their homes. For instance, on 9 September 2021, in the Kobo district alone, the brutal murder of 650 (six hundred and fifty civilians) was officially confirmed by national and international organizations.

From the survivors’ perspectives, TPLF extremely committed various forms of civilian massacres and attacks on Amharas, including children, women, and the elderly. For the participants who have survived the tragic massacre and experienced the barbarisms of TPLF, for the last twenty-seven (27) years of its regime in an attempt to forcefully assimilate, Raya Amharas like Wolkait Amhara’s, these varied forms of atrocities and attacks were implied as an extension of unsuccessful ethnic cleansing. The below-presented pieces excerpts of the survivor showed that the atrocities and attacks tragically targeted the ethnic identity; an in-depth interviewee [Abera and Muhammed] revealed:

… I can tell that all the demonic activities and attacks were perpetrated against these communities just because they shared the Amhara magnificent identity, but it was not spoken enough to the world yet. I did not see these heinous murders before, and I am not sure such cruelties existed in the world either.

Massacre of civilians and the burning of their villages

The finding of the study has shown that, the TPLF which have been mentioned and officially designated by the Government of Ethiopia as a terriorist group since May 2021, humiliated, dehumanized, and inflamed every Amharas inhabited in TPLF seized districts. It was revealed that massacres and killings of innocent civilians were accompanied by humiliation and dehumanization.

As the interview results revealed, the terrorist military group did not just kill inhabitants, but they tortured and humiliated them before the killing, especially men in front of their wives and children. It was revealed that they tended to enjoy the sufferings of the wounded innocent civilians in the invaded territories. For the purpose of the massacre, thus, both guns and non-gun items were reported to be used, and civilians were also burnt with fire. For the majority of the survivors, these kinds of atrocities were interpreted beyond bodily harm and misery. In addition, they described that the invaders wanted to cause inhabitants to despise their own identity and to convey the invaders’ dominance over the social psychology of the Amhara people. One of the survivor’s voices, described below, could indicate, the nature of the massacre and foreseeable intentions behind forcing inhabitants to witness the murder of their beloved ones; an in-depth interviewee [Zemzem] revealed:

I have seen much more horrible executions. Innocent civilians were ordered to lie down in the middle of the street and pierced to their throats by a knife and adze, while other inhabitants were forced to stand by and watch the murder. In the nighttime, home-to-home, the onslaught has been brutally carried on.

The other survivors also shared that the invaders’ intention was far more than just killing and they believed that what happened was inexcusable to humankind and never imagined happening before. One of the survivors described the situation as ‘it was frightening that the bones of charred people were locked in with metal wire and their corpses were collected and buried collectively’.

As the researchers understood from the field-visit observation and in-depth interviews of the survivors, the burning of the villages was one of the parts of the massacre in the Kobo and Agamsa districts. It was revealed that TPLF groups burned several dwellings in occupied areas. Apart from villages, it was unfortunate that civilians who could not leave the village were also burnt inside the houses. Survivors have witnessed horrific and inhuman acts of trouncing houses by fire and the complete destruction of their properties into hashes. It is hard to imagine how difficult it would be for the survivors who have experienced such horrific acts inflicted against humanity. In this regard, one of the survivors shared his witness as; Ali and other in-depth interviews from Agamsa reported:

I have seen seventy-three houses and homemade properties that were ruined by fire. Aside from the hunt for individuals and dropping into the scorching inferno, it was desperate and against humanity.

Another interviewee [Abera], also supplemented that:

It was horrible to explain the asset destruction and vandalism by the TPLF soldiers. For instance, my three houses were burned over one night after three days of the TPLF milita group entrance in Agamsa areas. The militas robbed the remaining sack of Teff (Williams love grass) and ingredients to affect civilians economy systematically. My extended families were also experienced trouncing houses by fire and the complete destruction of their properties into hashes.

A massacre on animals and trees

The results of the interview revealed that the TPLF army has extended massacring to animals and trees as well. It seems strange to imagine how possible it would be for animals and trees to be exposed to the massacre. In the survivors’ view, however, animals and plants and /or trees were part of the hatred and revenge toward Amharas and were massacred just because they belonged to ethnic Amharas. It was quite abnormal to think that animals and plants could be identified with certain ethnic identities. Once assigning people to certain ethnic identities and attacking them based on their ethnicities has started, it would be expected that any belongings of ‘enemy groups’ are liable to destruction or looting.

Therefore, as the war was ethnicallydriven, the invaders induced a massacre against the Amharas and the animals and trees that belonged to them. As the survivors have described, apart from slaughtering animals in massive numbers, the TPLF military junta also massively killed any animals and cut trees intended to destroy Amharas. For instance, this was supported by one in-depth interviewee witness as follows:

I have watched when invaders simply shoot any animal found around them and cut trees for no reason. They, of course, butchered farmers’ cattle for food use everywhere they went. Whether they finished the meat at hand or not, many oxen were slaughtered. As you know, our farming relies on oxen, which serve us as tractors’.

Gender based violence, and sexual violence as Weapon of war

The interview results showed that the TPLF terrorist militia group had committed horrific acts of gender-based and sexual violence against women and teenagers in the occupied districts on a regular basis, and the militia group used sexual violence against women, girls, teenagers, and elders used as a weapon of war. Despite the fact that the invaders invariably attacked women and teenagers, the wives and children of Amhara militia’s families and civilians were severely raped and humiliated. The survivors described how the TPLF armed groups inflicted severe forms of sexual violence against women and children of Amhara for revenge and used them as intimidation and psychological warfare.

For a society that gives high regard to moral values and the institution of marriage, witnessing horrific acts of sexual violence would be dehumanizing. In Amhara society, rape is socially and legally prohibited, and rape of children and married women, in particular, would amount to a cultural shock in addition to psychological and physical harm. Thus, Amhara people prefer to give their lives struggling against this horrific act than leaving their wives and children to be raped by the armed groups. The survivors testified that several people perished while trying to protect their children, wives, and mothers from the TPLF armed groups’ sexual attack and humiliation. For instance, a Kedir has mentioned that ‘an old father has ruthlessly killed in the course of protecting his child from sexual assault by the terrorist gang of TPLF’.

The findings from interviews with the survivors also revealed that, the armed groups have committed disgraceful acts that are strange and prohibited in Ethiopian moral and religious settings. In both dominant religions of the county (i.e. Christianity & Islam), raping and inflicting sexual assault in sacred places, such as, churches are strictly immoral by societal standards. However, one of the survivors [Mullu], revealed that the TPLF armed groups raped an elderly nun serving in a monastery in occupied districts;

An 80-year-old nun or female monk who lives in the spiritual world and is isolated from the social world has been subjected to gangrape by the TPLF military Junta, which violates Ethiopian moral societal and religious values. Rape has happened to her. I do not believe they require her for sexual gratification.

It is strange to imagine that the perpetrators were driven by sexual impulses and sought sexual gratification by raping a woman living in a sacred world. However, as survivors strongly emphasized, it could be one of the ways that the armed groups wanted to convey their hatred and the extent of power they could possibly have over the Amhara people.

As a result of these acts that targeted eroding moral values, the survivors were hugely humiliated and dehumanized. One of the survivors, Ejigayehu has reflected pessimistic views and wished that she could have died rather than witnessed;

I have never seen such a swarm of monsters before, and I do not want to see another until I die. I can not recall a time when I wanted to die and beg my deity to take me to the sacred realm rather than witness this rubbish reality.

More importantly, an in-depth interviewee Zemzem reported:

Three members of a military junta came to my house and had me have sex in front of my spouse and kids. They force my spouse and the kids to leave right away. I informed them that I had been living with HIV for the last nine years. I’ve shown them the card that directs the follow-up care. It’s really challenging, and I have no words to describe what has occurred to me. …. Crying…. I told him to left me… please leave me…. please leave me …. By St. marry… by marry …… oh…by Jusus Christ … and or by Allah if you are a Muslim but I couldn’t cultivate empathy on him. The rest two do the same. It will be easy if it was one to one though it is illegal and inhuman offense.

Verbal abuse and dehumanization

The survivors revealed that verbal abuse and dehumanization were strongly used along with other massacres and attacks against the Amhara people. As the TPLF was a pioneer in classifying people based on their ethnicities and used ethnic divisions to maintain power for the last 27 years, it has also assigned prejudices and stereotypes to certain ethnic groups. The survivors described how the invaders frequently used derogatory terms i.e. ‘Timktegna’, ‘Neftegna’ and ‘expansionist’ to identify Amharas as soon as they occupied Kobo and Agamsa districts.

As a result, Amharas were exposed to inflammation and insults in a degrading way even before they were killed. For instance, one of the survivors has shared what he has witnessed as follows, ‘In a village called St. Michael, after inflammatory insults, a woman, her husband, and their children were atrociously killed with knives’.

The survivors, themselves, have experienced degrading and inhuman derogations and were treated like animals as one of the survivors mentions; A group of TPLF armed forces insulted me, saying that ‘you are a donkey and do not deserve human-hood; and thus, you should be cleared from this land.’

It appears that inflammation and insults were part of the massacres and attacks that could not be understood exclusively. The survivors strongly argue that psychological humiliation and dehumanization are systematically targeted to instill, at least, a sense of inferiority and suffering among Amharas. As a result, the invaders wanted to cause a psychological trouble, kill morale, and indoctrinate powerlessness among the people of Amhara. The majority of the survivors shared their thoughts on the intentions behind these dehumanizing actions of the TPLF on the people of Amhara as follows:

The TPLF leaders and fellows believes that the Amharas are their historic enemies. Since they were constructing a nation named ‘Great Tigray’, Amhara was taken as a serious threat to their vision that could snatch their greatness. This is because the TPLF has forcefully demarcated territories in the Tigray region historically belonging to the Amhara ethnic group.

Kidnapping and hostage taking

The results showed that the TPLF armies used kidnapping and hostage-taking as a strategy to meet their intended purposes. Kidnapped young boys were obliged to engage in war for tactical and strategic military purposes. The survivors witnessed that young boys were forced to engage in a war being placed on the front lines to attack their community members and compelled to sterilize explosives by scarifying their lives. A survivor of the massacre, Kedija said that ‘My son, aged seventeen, was taken at midnight by TPLF forces and until this time, I had no idea where he is. I thought he might die like his friends’.

Kidnapping and hostage-taking were principally used to inflict gender-based and sexual abuse against women and young girls in the seized districts. The use of force and fear are unavoidably carried it out: the criminals used a weapon to push the victim into a vehicle. Women and girls from these situations have been identified as victims of gender-based violence who have been used as sexual material by invaders as a war trophy. The survivors also stated that, kidnapped women and girls were tortured to provide information about Amhara militias and forcefully confessed and transit secrets in exchange for hostages. With kidnapping, women and teenagers have experienced physical and psychological harm such as bodily injury, fear, and a sense of purposelessness; an in-depth interviewee [Jemila] revealed:

What makes me emotional is that the rebel groups arrive with youngsters under the age of 20, and these men have been commanded to go from house to house and assault mature women like me. They do have moms like me, but their answer has been to repair their wounds and their mothers’ wounds by harming Amhara’s women. This is a false equivalence and goes against Amhara’s social psychology. They are totally inhumane, immoral, unjust, and totally against ethics and religion.

Destroying institutions and vandalism of properties

The results of the interviews showed that, the TPLF armed groups robbed hospitals, schools, and other institutions of materials that are found in the occupied districts. The properties of these institutions, including hardware and software components were either looted or burned and damaged. Pharmaceutical products and machinery in the hospital were among the targeted properties for plundering and looting. One of the survivors [Solomon], explained the severity of the looting by stating, ‘…the hospital is like an empty nook that is left with its wall, as are schools and libraries. The armed groups looted plasma TVs and computers from Kobo High School…’

As the findings show, properties of significant institutions were too looted and damaged. For instance, the armed groups chopped school tables and chairs to prepare food and heat sources during the cold seasons. Besides, the walls of the various schools and health facilities were damaged by mortars. The community members could not do anything to save these ruins other than watch them vanish. In this regard, one of the survivors [Temesgen felt regretted that he was powerless to save the damage as;

… It was beyond my and the community’s capacity to stop the destruction of the hospital and schools. I was under war siege and I could not make a valuable contribution to save the institutions, as did the community.

The findings showed that, the armed groups looted, robbed, and burned private properties and belongings of the people in the occupied areas, like other occupied areas in the Amhara and Afar regions. Any valuable equipment and possessions were taken forcefully, or burned if they were not found useful for the armed groups. It makes sense to understand the extent of vandalism or cruelty when the rebels steal gold rings from married ladies, which are a mark of social organization that testifies to the status of a married woman or man. They go incredibly against such socio-cultural organizations. The attackers took equipment and valuable possessions by force. The principle is that a given item would be made available to them unless the invaders harm their official presence in the Kobo communities.

Furthermore, the TPLF group was engaged in the burning of materials that were not useful to them. Animals, which are important properties or assets of the Amhara people, were slaughtered in large numbers, and their slaughter was made pointless. Homes were also burned, and the remainder of the property was rendered worthless. The researchers observed that seventy-three homes (i.e. only in Agamsa village) were changed to ashes. The atrocious acts of the TPLF armies ruined grains and household properties. The survivor [Muhammed], showed revenge-driven catastrophe as;

As you can see, the TPLF invaders burned down my home, and I was left with an empty set. I am living with nothing to own and I am waiting for the hands of benevolent volunteers from all corners of the world. More crucially, the intruders were sent house to house to deliberately burn down Amhara’s homes and put people they found nearest to the place into the burning fire.

Multifaceted consequences on survivors in Kobo and Agamsa districts

The social impact of the war crime and/genocide

The war crimes and genocide committed against the Kobo and Agamsa communities have brought significant family disruption, displacement, and social unrest to survivors of the massacre. During the war, innocent dwellers of the area’s spouses, children, and older people were intentionally killed by the rebel forces. Mostly, males were highly targeted for killing, leaving children without fathers and older adults without caregivers. In the culture of the study areas’, men are the breadwinners, and the children basic needs depend on their fathers. However, the war exposed children and family members to displacement and associated social problems because of the genocide committed against their fathers and caregivers. As a result, the invaders caused family disorganization, and children were exposed to various social problems such as begging, participating in daily labor activities, and being street vendors.

The massacre committed by the rebel forces exposed family members to losing their status in the community, economic depression, displacement, and loss of property. In addition, the community bonds were affected, and the houses of the families became graveyards, which became the source of mental health problems for the spouses and children. Young and child family members who are highly affected by the massacre are exposed to orphan and street life, and either internal or international migration.

Raped women are suffering from psychological problems, and unintended pregnancy due to rape also exacerbates the mental health challenges of women. Furthermore, during the six-month stay of rebel forces in the area, health stations were damaged, which exposed pregnant women to bleeding, newborn babies lacked care and medical support, and the use of traditional methods. Mourning death is highly valued in the community of both study areas. However, the rebel forces did not allow the community to mourn with their relatives, extended family members, and neighbors. An in-depth interview participant Ergoye reported; ‘This is a six-month bullet fence which takes our freedom of movement, speech, and play with our neighbors and even does not allow us to mourn for our family members killed by the rebel groups’.

Migration and displacement

Ethnic- based conflict-induced displacement is increasing at an alarming rate due to the atrocities perpetrated by the TPLF group in seized areas of Amhara and Afar regions. For instance, a significant number of Amharas in Kobo and Agamsa, especially the younger generations, have migrated to Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries. In addition, children, older people, and women are displaced to different parts of the country to refrain from arbitrary killing, rape, forced recruitment in the war, hunger, and associated problems. During the process of fleeing, innocent civilians were killed, injured, subjected to famine, given birth in the forest where there was no medical access, raped, and children malnourished. Not only in the fleeing process, but also innocents experienced various forms of challenges in the place where they resettled due to food shortages, anxiety, and depression due to the loss of their significant others. Many young people illegally migrated from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations to support their families during economic challenges. Because all conditions are dreadful, and they transcend borders and make sacrifices for their family members. [Mullu] reported:

During the slaughter on Puagmie 04/2013, I lost my spouse and fled to Woldia, then Dessie. I felt it was difficult to survive the tragedies of the onslaught. In difficult times, my family’s economic and livelihood situation collapsed, and two of my daughters went to Saudi Arabia to support us.

More over an in-depth interview participant Ali revealed:

Relocation is a common manifestation of my life. I have displaced from Wollega Oromiya, western part of Ethiopia. Also, now I am fleeing here and there due to the invasion of the TPLF military junta.

Social unrest

The community believed that TPLF’s historical and political narrative was ultimately prejudiced toward the Amhara ethnic group, which became one of the means of the Amhara community’s current challenge. The present war and atrocities were an outgrowth of the TPLF’s ill manifesto in the constitution on the Amhara community, and slogans when they started guerilla fighting in 1967 with the Derg regime. They have strategically employed relocation, mass slaughter, and genocide, along with ethnic profiling, to render the Amharans people socially unrested. TPLF politicians created false mythology toward Amhara people that created hate by ethnic groups of Tigray. This false rhetoric became the means that started to affect the unity of the Tigray community and Amhara ethnic groups. During the outbreak of the war in the Tigray region, the ethnic Amhara members were the targets of killing, property looting, and ethnic -based displacement. Gradually, the war spread to the Amhara and Afar regions, and many innocents faced various forms of challenges. In addition, individuals who belong to ethnic Amharas were displaced, and mass killing operations were executed in many administrative of the region. Nowadays, it is impossible to find cities and towns in the Amhara region with out displaced people. There is no settled resident, no education, health care, and basic entitlements as a legal member of the country.

Using the plight of ‘Neftegna’, all government and non-government armed groups and terrorists massacred Amharans brutally. The pseudo-historical and political narrative that considers Amharans as rulers of the country since antiquity also considers the general population as oppressors and privileged. By no means, Amharans were marginalized, excluded, and defamed from the socio-economic, political, and cultural development landscape of the country, thereby creating a social crisis among Amhara. For these matters, Amharans are displaced, murdered, massacred, and defamed to have little impact in shaping the political, economic, social, and cultural landscape of the country. Systems, structures, and institutional arrangements operating in the country were not fulfilling their primary function of securing and keeping the Amharas inviolable and inalienable rights. [Temesgen and Ali] reported:

TPLF is a demonic group that encourages division and hatred against unity and solidarity. It has been a bad political and strategic decision to expel Amharans from their homeland of Ethiopia. As a member of Amhara groups, I am subjected to a variety of hardships and live in an unstable environment. I am not sure about tomorrow or the future situation of people.

Human trafficking and forced prostitution

The family breakup, followed by the TPLF genocidal incident against the Kobo community, exacerbated societal issues like prostitution. Teenagers have engaged in prostitution to generate income and support their families. The unplanned social activity that followed the TPLF assault on the town resulted in the concentration of a significant number of troops and civilians in the town. For economic reasons, teenagers have been involved in intoxicated manufacturing and selling, alongside forced prostitution, and victims of sex trafficking. Young women follow the trend of socializing in the informal sector to earn their daily bread. Women faced a significant risk of sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancy, and social rejection in the community. One of the in-depth interview participants [Ejigayehu], depicted that:

I have nothing, and I do not have an option other than being engaged in the kind of job available to me. I have left my family too. Therefore, I have engaged in drink-making.

Economic impacts of the war

The armed conflict that happened in the study area has caused a significant economic decline in war-torn areas of the Amhara region. Both Kobo and Agamsa’s communities severely suffered economically because of their cattle were slaughtered, agricultural products were burned and all economic activities stopped during the period of the war. In addition, the rebel forces looted vehicles and machineries in the Kobo town. The houses of the selected community members were burnt with all their agricultural products, which exposed them to waiting for support from the government and living destitute lives. The war and the ensuing genocide have resulted in the loss of families, economic status, and households with no breadwinners. As a result, children have dropped out of school, and young women have entered the informal sector to combat the poor economic and livelihood problems. Zemzem revealed:

I am living in Kobo, a town with dire economic conditions. The genocide operation of the TPLF invaders killed the head of the household. I found my home burnt and I lost the assets and resources that I had before the war. Now I am alone with my empty set and nothing to eat. Both my daughter and I have engaged in the informal economy to lead the family.

Psychological impacts of the war

The utmost hardship that has the survivors and victims of genocide have experienced fear, posttraumatic stress, sleeping disorder, depression, loneliness, stress, and anxiety. Having a witnessing brutal experiences lead them creates all kinds of psychological problems. Like Cheinaa, Mayikadra, the Agamssa and Kobo victims of genocide have been experienced horror and terror that resulted in sleeping disorders, nightmares, and fear that the atrocity would get back again. Children who survived the arbitrary killing, experienced day, and night gunfire sounds, and witnessed the killing of significant others are highly facing psychological problems, and they do not want to see a person who wears military clothes with a gun. Additionally, those families and households who lost four to five family members found it difficult to find someone to bury the corpse, and this was a traumatic event and heartfelt grief, as they were living with the corpse for days, causing mental health problems and social withdrawal among those who witnessed the massacre.

Families have been prohibited from relocating, being deported, and moving from place to place during the six-month (6) stay of the rebel forces, which obligated them to witness all such challenges. The innocent dead bodies were observed in many places, which horrified the community, and currently, the community is afraid that the situation will happen again. The social psychology of survivors has been dehumanized, abashed, and humiliated with siege as well as stressful contexts that generate instability and psychological destabilization. Notably, the armed conflict survivors are insecure in cascading life as usual and are hopeless and purposeless about life. Apart from the dooms and glooms of the war survivors, they do not have dreams and visions about tomorrow, and tomorrow will be ensured through self-defense using the untapped mentality of the Amhara war trophy. [Tegauda] reported:

I have lost three children as well as my husband. I could not bear the death of families on this scale. It was hard for me to survive in this horrible position. I am always thinking of all my children and my husband. When I attempt to recollect how they were slain, I resolve to commit suicide. Ahhh… I am sorry it was a bad incident for humanity, and I wish I could not have been alive in this era.

The current orientation of the community

With the pushing effects of the genocidal experience of the TPLF and the conspiracy of the federal government of Ethiopia, Amharans are on the way to establishing new systems of self-defense and public transformations. The community has lost trust and a sense of leadership in the government’s superstructure. The communities of Kobo and Agamsa believed that the source of the social and economic challenge was the failure of the federal government of Ethiopia and the false rhetoric of the TPLF group members. These two communities were highly affected by the war in all dimensions and are currently preparing themselves to defend against such future challenges.

The morality and social psychology of this community have been severely harmed, and the dooms and glooms of Amharans, as they are terrorists and expansionists, have been greatly exaggerated and defamed. In addition, till the data collection of this study, the community’s economic participation is limited, and they are in a negative psychological makeup due to the bad experiences they had. Schools are closed and children are still not back to school. Before the war, the community members of the Amhara region were highly engaged in agriculture, trade, industry, schooling and textile production. However, after the armed conflict posed by the TPLF invaders, the orientation of the community has changed to military and self-defense measures.

The government at all levels and structures also denies the great contribution of the public forces of the Amhara region in defending themselves and the federal government for national concerns, thereby leading these forces to consider their survival and futurity. For this reason, many public forces have been engaged in military training for self-defense, and these forces understand that the current government operating in the Ethiopian political landscape is a failed state. The Amhara, after experiencing repeated genocide and ethnic cleansing in many regions of the country, thought that justice would not be ensured by simple political debate but by building and maintaining a military power balance, and so did the Kobo and Agamsa Amharas. The societal order has been shifted to a military perspective. [Abera and Ali] reported the following:

‘It is better to die instead of killing your own ethnic group members when you are forcefully taken by the rebel forces and forced to kill your own. I must stop to die silently; apparently kidnapping the youngsters and using them for the war consumption of enemies and beating their people and obliged to serve for TPLF. I thought the collision forces of TPLF and the federal government’ killed us.

Discussion

The findings of the study noted that heinous human rights violations, which include murder, masskilling, and massacre, have amounted to killing Amhara civilians residing in Kobo and Agamsa. More importantly, the findingcould suggest that whoever has committed these crimes; it is a war crime, a crime against humanity, and contrary to the natural nature of existence. In a similar vein, throughout human history, war and massacres have resulted in crimes against civilians (Voloshchuk, Kolesnyk & Hetmantsev, 2021). Like Armenian Genocide, Jewish Holocaust, Genocide in East Pakistan, Mayan Genocide, Kurdish Genocide, Tutsi Genocide Bosnian Genocide, Darfur Genocide, and Yazidi Genocide), were accompanied by inter-nation or intra-nation wars (Bachman, 2020). These atrocities against humanity were referred to as ‘crimes against humanity after Raphael Lemkin added new terminology to the academia (i.e. ‘Genocide’ in 1944).

The study confirmed brutal incidence of genocide against Ethnic Amharas is motivated by a desire to cleanse them by mass murder, gang rape, vandalism, psychological dehumanization, and humiliation. These rebels have a larger political goal in mind (Mayersen, 2021), genocide- politicize, and many atrocities which is to eliminate Amharas at a societal level. Essentially, they considered Amharans as historical enemies and were traveling to Ethiopia to slaughter and eradicate them from their homeland. They work to depress the Amhara people’s economy on purpose. The rebel group’s indiscriminately slaughter of Amharans has a deeper goal. By and large, it is exterminating Amharans both in whole and in part, with sociological goals. Likewise, genocide accounts for an intended, deliberate, and coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of the national groups, with the aim of annihilating the group themselves (Raphael, 2008). The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948); which states that; any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, such as; a)killing members of the group, b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, d) imposing measures intended to prevent births with the group, e) forcefully transferring children of the group to another group (Chang, 1997; Dutton Boyanowsky & Bond, 2005; Dutton et al., 2005). Violence against civilians after TPLF armed forces took the military offensive in Amhara and Afar regions in August, 2020 (Ibreck & de Waal, 2022). Similar to that, the current study looked at the rape, killing, and burning of citizens, as well as their homes and villages. As part of the genocide, Amharas’ livestock in the seized lands was slaughtered in large numbers along with trees (UNGC, 1948).

On the other hand, it can be argued that the definition loosely captures atrocities committed by the perpetrators against the body of the victims. This study revealed that torturing and degrading victims before killing them was a regular practice. Notably, women and teenage girls were objects of gang rape and sexual assault thereby resulting in pregnancy and exposing them to abortion (Eramian & Denov, 2018); stigma of having been born with genocidal rape. According to Dwyer and Ryan (2015), many of the victims in the My Lai massacre were first tortured and maimed before being slain. In their deadliest forms, Tutsi women had also been raped disfigured, and had things inserted in their vaginas before being killed (Wakeham, 2021). There were countless other gruesome and unfathomable atrocities committed during World War II. For instance, Shaw (2007) describes the savage crimes of troops, which go beyond rape to include dismembering women, chopping off their breasts, and nailing them to walls while still alive. These included inexcusable acts of forcing fathers to rape their daughters, and sons their mothers in front of other family members. Though the contents of the atrocities were different in the current finding. While in the current study, the survivors were forced to watch the massacre of their family members and inhabitants during the tragic slaughtering, the former study survivors were forced to watch morally prohibited incest between children and parents.

In the current study, the invaders subjected the women and children of the Amhara militia, who attempted to repel the invasion, to the worst forms of rape and killing. Most importantly, the attack resemblies the whole population, but it is unique regarding the family members of the Amhara militia. Similarly, the Perpetrators inflection of massacre and practice of cruel acts on the civilian population had designed it to meet its ends. Semelin (2003) states that by torturing and degrading their victims, the killers either seek retribution against imagined ‘others’ or tend to terrify and put an end to any imagined uprisings in the seized territories. For example, when numerous women were slaughtered and raped by Turkish soldiers during the First World War, measures were taken to put an end to the Armenian Revolt (Dutton et al., 2005).

Apart from raging revenge and enjoying the victims’ suffering, the current study showed further intentions of the invaders; i.e. the extent of dominance over the inhabitants by causing inhabitants to despise their own identity and conveying superiority over the community psychology of the Amhara people. Similar to this, during their invasion in the 1930s, the Italians utilized blatant punishment, such as mutilation, to record the victory of the conqueror on the bodies of the defeated (Rachel Ibreck & Alex de Waal, 2022).

As scholars suggest, tribalism has accompanied by historical animosity (Dutton et al., 2005), leads to the exposure of social groups identified as an enemy for massacre and genocide (Shaw, 2007). Consistent with this argument, TPLF, after dominating political power in 1991, established ethnic-based federalism and continued inculcating orchestrated narratives against the Amhara people associating them with the Emperor’s regimes. Consequently, differentiation based on identity started to escalate while solidarity between the ethnically classified groups decreased. As Dwyer deals with, a cultural framework that ostensibly places more emphasis on individual identity distinctions than communality progressively encourages genocide. When ‘we’ vs ‘them’ thinking became the foundation of identification and ‘othering’ and provoked by dehumanizing target groups, it gradually promotes cruelty and massacre (Dwyer, 2013). In the current study, as well, identification was followed by dehumanization and subsequent hatred towards ethnic Amharas. The survivors claim of being degraded with bad words and insulting terms is associated with the study findings of Scheper-Hughes (1996), psychology of normalizing and routinizing heinous acts against ‘others’ through the process of dehumanization and depersonalization (Dwyer, 2013).

The study revealed that the residents of Kobo and Agamsa have experienced serious socio-economic, traumatic, and political crises (Wise, 2021). Genocide-ecocide amounted to social unrest, economic depression, and, a general lack of security and defenselessness thereby causing migration and focus on the informal economy (Munn, 2006; Staub, 2000; Sternberg, 2003). The pieces of literature about genocide confirmed that Millwood (1996) the Tutsi who were the principal victims of political violence in Rwanda in the decolonization period (1959–1963) fled to the surrounding countries, displaced with large numbers settling in southern Uganda (Banyanga et al., 2017).

The brutal nature and extent of the slaughter, along with the ensuing mass migration, swiftly and profoundly destroyed Rwanda’s social foundation. After the genocide, the whole population was victimized by a continuum of violence, and individual and social suffering and dire economic conditions (Martuscelli et al., 2022) were ubiquitous. For refugees, traumatization is often an enduring, cumulative process that continues during exile (Bolton, 2001; Herman, 1997; Staub, 1999; Van der Veer, 1995). According to a United Nations report, the experience of violence traumatized a high proportion of the Rwandan population (United Nations, 2001, p. 9).

This study confirmed that the massacre has changed the general orientation of the survivors towards militarism and self-sufficiency in all streams of society rather than waiting for poor and dismantled government structures conspiring with the blood of people. Parallel to the above findings, the studies supported that, although the individual experiences suffering, it is in this particular context based on interplay between perpetrator and victim (Banyanga et al., 2017). Many years after the Rwandan tragedy, reconciliation among Rwandan people both in Rwanda and abroad, is still a big challengesince many Rwandans are burning with anger, hatred, deep frustration, and dashed hopes.

Conclusion and ways of forwards

The Amhara people were thought to be a privileged ethnic group that had controlled the state apparatus and was thereby prone to political conspiracy and sabotage since the TPLF regime dominantly held political power from 1991 to 2018. Since 1991, ethnic-based federalism was established, and atrocities amounting to ethnic cleansing and massacres against ethnic Amharas have begun in different regions, and have exponentially escalated under the Prosperity Party where the OPDO-dominated Leadership of Abiy Ahmed’s regime. The massacre and atrocities against the civilians of the Kobo and Agamsa districts are the results of extended and orchestrated narratives and animosity against ethnic Amharas by the TPLF.

The study showed that the atrocities and attacks targeted civilians and were found to be deliberate to bring multi-factored catastrophe that could amount to massacre and genocide as defined in the Convention against Genocide (1948). The massacre and Genocide not merely involved the loss of innocent lives, gangrape, and destruction of properties, but mainly targeted humiliation and dehumanizing of victims and survivors. By implication, the intent of the massacre also had psychological and sociological implications that targeted loading feelings of inferiority and powerlessness by eroding existing socio-cultural values and history of the ethnic Amharas.

Consequently, the war-driven massacre has brought tremendous amounts of social crisis upon survivors, including but not limited to, family disintegrations, displacement, migration, trauma, economic insecurity, and political crisis amounting to serious humanitarian devastation. Besides, institutions, and private and public properties were vandalized and destroyed as means of socio-economic Genocide in the region. Devastatingly, the cumulative effects of the massacre and atrocities brought change to the community’s orientation towards trust in the government and its structure: reliance on self-defense, social unrest, and the emergence of militant society.

Hence, the zonal and regional government has to provide immediate humanitarian services and reintegration processes so that the social and economic impacts of the community might be reduced. The community- based rehabilitation of the victims of survivors using interdisciplinary socio- economic and psychological measures should be a short- term and long- term interventions. The Amhara and Ethiopia central government has to provide urgent legal and political decisions about ethnic- based displacement and conflict- affected areas of Amhara peopleand arrange community- based discussions about the war-torn areas to permanently settle and recover from harm and permanently guarantee the social security and human rights of people in the region.

Acknowledgments

The authors duly acknowledge the participants of this study from the Kobo and Agamsa communities to give the necessary information relevant to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shambel Desale Gashaw

Shambel Desale Gashaw is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Social work, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Gondar, Ethiopia. His research interests include social policy, gender studies, community development and disadvantaged groups.

Eyayu Kasseye Bayu

Eyayu Kasseye Bayu is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Gender and Development Studies, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Gondar. His research interests include conflict, migration trends, gender and development issues.

Endeshaw Aynetu Bitew

Endeshaw Aynetu Bitew is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Department of Social work, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Gondar, Ethiopia. His research interests includesocial justice and policy, social work education, and human rights.

Getachew Gebyaw Tadesse

Getachew Gebeyaw Tadese is an academic staff member in the Department of Social Work at the University of Gondar. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science at Queen’s University in Canada. His research interests focus on community-based rehabilitation, social participation, and homelessness and vulnerable populations.

Tebaber Chanie Workneh

Tebaber Chanie Workneh, PhD is An Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. His research interests include conflict, indigenous knowledge and peace, and social and cultural anthropology.