Pleading for Mercy with Open Wounds

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BY STAFF WRITER

For sometimes, we would be subjected to permanent scars from agonies that have never been healed. Only when peace and tranquility prevail in a country do days and nights provide moments of rest and mental quietness.

The night of December 1, 2021 was not a decent memory for many including Workeye Wodaje and her neighbors, as the bleak night did not offer them something good.

Workeye Wodaje, female and 27 used to live in North Wollo, Kobo District in Zobel village of Amhara Region. On December 1, 2021 at about 8 P.M, terrorist TPLF armed gangs  crushed into her door and headed to the saloon. Workeye pleaded to the terrorists in tears not to harm her children, who were five and a year old. The barbaric and vandalistic terrorist fighters never had a heart to show mercy to her and her children. First,  the terrorists tied down the hands and feet of her husband. They then snatched the child from her back and started to tussle with her. She fiercely fought to escape from her captors but in vain. They shoot a bullet into her left leg in cold blood. They then turned to her husband, who had been tied up and killed him right before the children with several rounds of bullets and run away.

Hadigaz Rahamato, is another women in the same village, who endured the same savage ordeal. The terrorist gangsters suddenly appeared that night when Hadigaz and her family members were at home, chatting with each other. TPLF militants came in and immediately ordered all those who were in the house to leave the house. Hadigaz escorted out her four year old child, carrying another infant. All of a sudden, the terrorists opened fire cold-bloodedly killing her four year child and severely wounded the infant on her back. They wounded anybody they came across. Hadigaz who was soaked in blood fell flat on the ground. They left her on the ground thinking that she had died. But Hadigaz was seriously injured on her face. She said “they have mercilessly deprived my youth age.”  

Zewdetu Mengesha is a mother of six children. On this cursed day, Zewditu was trying to cook enjera with a kerosin  lamp in her hand to serve a guest who sneaked in unexpectedly. To her dismay, a horde of terrorists ate up all the enjera she prepared for her children and a guest.

Another group of terrorists jumped in and forced Zweditu to serve them food. She again patiently welcomed them only to hear a huge round of bullet fire in which Zewditu lost her right hand. Apart from suffering a severe traumatic disorder, she lost her right hand with which she could have used to earn her living.  

In spite of the generosity and good will she showed to the terrorist whenever they were around, they responded her with evil acts, cutting off her right arm.

Ayalew Gebreyes was a humble and apolitical farmer who was laboring from dawn to dusk to eke life, sweating on his daily duties. Even then, he was not spared from the wrath and savage acts of the terrorist group.

Mind you, all this spots of tragic incidents occurred in a recent past, in a period of less than a year. The wounds of these victims are yet to heal. These tragic stories of the vandalistic action of the terrorist TPLF groups occurred in a period of seven months. ENA managed to take stories a few persons from hundreds of victims who had endured savage atrocities by the terrorist group right from the spot.

The hordes of greedy terrorists have dined on the meals of  poor mothers, snatching from the mouth of their children with boundless savage acts. They have raped elderly mothers and children and mercilessly massacred pregnant women. They have amputated the youth who could have helped themselves and their families. They have exhibited disgrace and inhumane acts of dishonor on the people in the areas they had temporally occupied. The terrorist group destroyed public infrastructure facilities and service centers in the mode of after me the deluge and inflicted huge damages on public and private properties which would be difficult to rehabilitate in decades. 

The terrorist group never cared about the lives of toddlers and children whom it made them suffer on its hands. They never listened to the pleading voices of mothers but responded them with bullets plunging their lives in untold agony and misery of helplessness. The group committed devilish crimes by using  children in Tigray as cannon fodder. The terrorist group has been snatching children who were supposed to laugh and play in the arms of their mothers. The inhuman action of the group has continued unabated to date.

The terrorist group massacred 240 civilians, including children and older persons in a single day. We have seen that the illusion of the terrorist group's intention of multiplying the misery of the people and marching to the central part of the country was effectively foiled.

Danawit Fitsum, 16 and female was forcefully conscripted into the rag tag army of the terrorists by pulling her out of school from grade 8. The plight of the victims of the most unforgivable episode of savage war of the terrorist group has still not ended.  

Having massacred many of innocent citizens and destroying public assets worth billions of Birr, the terrorist group has launched a third round of war on the people of Ethiopia. The untold atrocities committed by the terrorist group in various areas of the country have left huge traumatic effects and permanent wounds that may not heal over time. The group has continued with its saber rattling and human wave war showing its disregard of massacre and atrocities it had committed previously. In spite of the unhealed wounds our fellow citizens endured, the terrorist TPLF has shamelessly folded the hands of peace the federal governments has stretched to it.

Ethiopian News Agency
2023