Ethiopia massacre: New video shows soldiers passing phone around to document their executions of unarmed men

A few scattered human bones lay on the rocky ground, along with a broken skull and several half-burned identification cards. An April 2021 CNN investigation, in collaboration with Amnesty International, examined video clips of the January massacre and used geolocation techniques to verify the video was filmed on a ridge near Mahibere Dego in January 2021. This extended footage has all the hallmarks of a trophy video and yet – despite the evidence – the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office dismissed the findings of CNN’s original investigation saying, “social media posts and claims cannot be taken as evidence.” Six months after the attack, two people in Mahibere Dego told CNN they had collected the national identification cards of 36 people who were killed, but another 37 people remain missing, indicating the toll of the massacre could have been more than double what was initially reported. Over a period of days, family members of the victims filmed the church burials, documented evidence of bullet casings at the massacre site and took photographs of skeletal remains which they sent to CNN. “The village couldn’t wait any longer, saying ‘we can’t get peace unless we bury them’” Mahibere Dego resident, June 2021 CNN used geolocation to verify that the video of the bullet casings was from the same massacre site.