Findings were published yesterday in Amharic. Due to the security situation in western Ethiopia & the Ethiopian government's intolerance of independent journalism, journalists are yet to travel to the sites of the killings, hampering any press led probe.
Nevertheless, journalists from the AP, BBC, Deutsche Welle and plenty more have interviewed relatives of victims and survivors, many of whom recall important details leading up to, during and immediately after the horrific atrocity.
Among the important details that has been widely corroborated across activist and media channels, the fact that government militias tasked with protecting the Tole area where the massacre took place...inexplicably departed from the area about a day before the killers arrived.
Survivors I spoke to explained that heavily armed militants arrived in Tole and began their killing spree at around 9 AM local time. They wouldn't stop until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Shortly after they had killed hundreds and departed, security forces arrived on the scene.
The killers targeted men, women, the elderly and even infants of ethnic Amhara ancestry. Survivors say they looted and set fire to property wherever they roamed, and commanders were heard giving orders to underlings not to spare anyone.
The entire region has been a warzone since the Ethiopian army and Oromo Liberation Army began fighting in 2019. Much of the area has had no internet and very weak or no phone connection ever since.
Determining where the killings took place across the relatively vast Tole sub district of Gimbi county...is a task on its own. In due time, @planet and Maxar imagery will likely uncover mass graves. But the widespread use of arson to terrorize and murder, can identify locations.
Using NASA FIRMS satellite data, which was supposed to be used to track forest fires, you will learn that 3 fires were detected in farming and residential areas of Tole. The area is not prone to forest fire.
The fires were detected on June 18 at 7:39 GMT, which was 10:39 Ethiopian time & corresponds with the timeline given to multiple journalist outlets by survivors, who stated that attacks had begun at about 9 AM. At 10:39 the massacre was well underway.
Using the NASA data coordinates, one can get a close up of affected areas using any mapping tool & confirm that these are residential areas of Tole. No other fires were detected in the vicinity, making these areas very likely the scene of horrific carnage.
N.B this map doesn't identify all areas impacted by the massacre. NASA FIRMS has its limitations, and killings took place in certain areas where fire wasn't used. Nothing will top an in person visit to the area.
Nevertheless, it likely maps out certain movements of the militants, who according to survivors I spoke to, had a number of vehicles. Interestingly enough, the areas mapped out for fire damage, can be found along Ethiopia's transnational A4 Highway.
A Google Earth Pro closeup of one of the locations. The data places fire damage in this area, where homes, businesses and designated farming land can be seen. The road that dissects the area, is the A4 highway that connects Addis Ababa to Gambella.
The distance between residential areas which suffered detected fire damage, is 4.5 km. Both areas are under the Tole jurisdiction. The marauding killers feeling free enough to roam and kill for hours across such a vast distance...ought to disturb anyone.
Forestry, farming and homes of the typical Ethiopian (80% of Ethiopians sustain themselves via agricultural practice). This location is a couple minutes walk from the highway.
According to a BBC report, a significant number of women and girls were taken to a forest to be killed. The stories are infuriating and enough to drive one insane just imagining the scenes.
Let's recall some of the facts. Security forces tasked with protecting the area had suddenly packed up and left a day or so before the massacre. They were nowhere to be seen during the ~8 hours of killing and suddenly showed up after the militants had left. Where were they?
Some of them were as little as half an hour away. The site of the rampage was near the county capital Gimbi town, where county police & Oromia state special forces (pictured) are based. They remained idle throughout the 8 hour slaughter next door.
The massacre at Tole was also an hour's drive on the highway from the Oromia region major city of Nekemte, which has a major presence of Ethiopian army troops & Oromia special police. What could have been more important than stopping the onslaught?
Government supporters have pointed to the area's lack of internet and phone services to justify the extremely slow response time. Problem with this theory, is that survivors had managed to escape to nearby towns and report the then ongoing massacre to police long before it ended.
Let alone security forces, even activists and social media users were contacted by residents during the killings. I believe the US based @AAA_Amhara was made aware of the atrocity prior to the departure of the killers from Tole. It's why the AAA sounded alarm bells immediately.
It's extremely difficult to believe that an armed group spontaneously decided to go on a killing rampage across a vast (at least 4.5 km) span of territory, taking vehicles on a highway in government controlled territory, near multiple police & army posts...that lasted a whole day
On Tuesday night, Ethiopian MP Hangasa Ahmed took to Facebook & in a live stream that has been shared over 20k times & viewed half a million times, told viewers that recent massacres were orchestrated by members of his own ruling party in the Oromia region
It's the first admission of its kind by a sitting official. Hangasa identified Oromia regional President @ShimelisAbdisa and security bureau officials Ararsa Merdassa & Abebe Geresu among others, accusing them of mobilizing their own militia to areas inhabited by Amhara civilians
While Hangasa's shocking allegations are unverified as of yet, it is not the first time that massacres in the Oromia region were preceded by the sudden disappearances or suspicious absences of security forces from the scene of violence.
Addressing questions from parliament on the massacres yesterday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed dismissed allegations of complicity of government officials in mass killings as "rumours," and said that members of his government were saddened over their inability to prevent bloodshed.
But the answers are unlikely to reassure angry demonstrators in the Amhara region, who have taken to the streets of towns and cities to mourn the dead and accuse the government of direct involvement in their deaths.
These additional findings are not sufficient on their own to identify a perpetrator nor can they establish a death toll for Tole. Nothing can replace an in person probe. However, they point to gaping holes in the official version of the tragic events of June 18th 2022.
For more insight, my latest for @AJEnglish which came out on Wednesday highlights the growing rage of Amhara protesters and looks at mass killings in western Ethiopia, a topic that has been somewhat overshadowed by civil war in northern Ethiopia.