Ethiopia’s police on Monday apprehended two individuals who were allegedly involved in the massacre of more than 1000 people in Mai Kadra, small town in restive Tigray region of western Ethiopia.
The suspects namely Tesfaye Kebede and Abadit Abrha were arrested in Addis Ababa where they were hidden in a guest house which was rented for them by their relatives, the Ethiopian Federal Police Commission has announced. Three accomplices of them were also arrested.
Last week, the alleged leader of Mai-Kadra massacre were apprehended in a refugee camp in the same region.
Enkuayehu Mesele who is accused of masterminding the brutal killings of innocent people in Mai-Kadra also led the war from Baeker to Turkan, Humera, and all the way to Qafta, Captain Amanuel Belete, a commander in the Fifth Mechanized Division of the Northern Command had said.
The government of Ethiopia claimed majority of the suspects of the Mai-Kadra massacre had fled to Sudan refugee camp where more than 50,000 Ethiopians sheltered, fleeing the conflict in Tigray region.
Armed with blunt objects including machetes and knives, the attackers mid last month hacked and stabbed residents Mai Kadra largely ethnic Amharas to death, the witnesses told Amnesty International, which later confirmed “the massacre of a very large number of civilians” in the town.
Days later, a preliminary investigation by a government-appointed rights watchdog stated that there may be as many as 1000 victims, saying the killings were committed by a local youth group with the support of other Tigrayan civilians, police and militia.
Home to up to 45,000 people of Tigrayan, Amhara and other ethnic origins, Mai Kadra had been under the control of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) until its forces retreated from the town a day after the massacre as Ethiopian government troops made advances in western Tigray.
