Dear friends,

 

This circular presents the latest edition of the Tigray Atlas, with focus on new maps related to internally displaced persons (section 1); a video evidencing the destruction of Hagere Selam that we mentioned months ago already (section 2); international calls for action, beyond statements of concern (section 3), some announcements (section 4), opinion pieces (section 5), and media articles (section 6). Unfortunately, no good news to bring, but witnessing is also important!

 

  1. A new edition of TIGRAY: ATLAS OF THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION has been published

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349824181_Tigray_Atlas_of_the_humanitarian_situation

Maps have been updated on conflict incidents, territorial control, casualties and massacres – unfortunately still on the rise. Casualties also have been presented on monthly basis (ANNEX B).

In addition, two new maps have been developed, presenting the situation of internally displaced people (IDPs). By the end of March 2021, 1.7 million people had been displaced since the onset of the conflict. The location and living conditions of more than 925,000 of these internally displaced people is known, of which 85% is living in the towns of Shire, Adwa, Mekelle, Aksum and Adigrat (ranked in decreasing order). The new maps present the areas in Tigray where people have left (some areas now virtually void of civilian population) and the areas where strong in-migration occurs. The zones of origin of the IDPs are graphically represented through pie charts.

 

  1. Video of the Hagere Selam destruction

A video has emerged about the destruction in Hagere Selam. “It was on Dec 3 -5/2020 and 23 people were killed in three days. Some of them were buried by the few people who were around and some have been eaten by hyenas (small remains of their body with some clothes were found and buried later) “ The video was recorded on 12/12 in the morning, when the people who escaped to neighbouring villages started coming back.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ln1ivcvi9ej9txq/AAD45yK_gZuNTnQiutrR6ZQka?dl=0

In the meantime, much worse videos have already appeared about other places in Tigray, but Hagere Selam is one of the destroyed towns in Tigray that has been systematically filmed all along the main road.

Timeline: 00:13 blood? // 00:34 Hotel – The first “ground +1” building in Hagere Selam // 00:45 small shop (“soap, candles and biscuits”) // 01:43 commercial bank // 01:51 hotel // 02:30 another hotel // 03:26 Hotel & Wegagen Bank // 03:47 Hagere Selam milk cooperative’s shop, clothes shop (the lower part of the door is the weak place) // 04:03 blood? // 04:25 barber and music shop // 04:30 left (and small shouting), a minibus tries to find passengers for Mekelle // 04:51 suspected traces of killing // 04:55-06:52 Dedebit microcredit bank (the most severely damaged from all) // 06:58 juice house at left, coffee house at right // 07:03 new administration building (not yet operational when the war started)

With some time lag, the massacres in the Tigray war become increasingly well documented on Wikipedia.

 

  1. More calls for action, beyond statements of concern

Helen Clark and Rachel Kyte: In Tigray, Sexual Violence Has Become a Weapon of War - The world must step in now and call the assaults what they are: a war crime.

 

Mark Lowcock: ‘Do the right thing’ and protect civilian infrastructure during conflict: UN relief chief

 

UK International Development Committee calls for UK Government action:

 

  1. Announcements

 

  1. Opinion pieces

 

  1. In the media

 

----------------------------------------------------------

Jan Nyssen
Professor of Physical Geography
Department of Geography
Ghent University
Belgium
(0032) 9 264 46 23
http://geoweb.ugent.be/staff/802000198480

My 5-min Q&A interview on The World radio: Counting the victims in Tigray (2 April 2021)