December 12, 2020
Ona massacre
By Simon Weldemichael | Many villages suffered devastating losses during the 30- year war of the Eritrean liberation. Following the dictum of their emperor that “it’s Eritrea’s land that we want, not its people”, successive Ethiopian governments committed untold atrocities to exterminate the Eritrean people. The Ona massacre was one of the numerous atrocities committed against Eritrean civilians by the Ethiopian colonial army.
In Ona, a village two km from Keren, and surrounding villages, the colonial army killed the inhabitants, looted their properties and burned their houses in retaliation of the killing of Major General Teshome Ergetu, commander of the second division that was stationed in Eritrea. The commander of the Ethiopian army in Eritrea was shot on 20th November 1970 at a place between Balwa….
