مـجـزرة أغردات
يـوم ألاحـد ألاسـود التاسع من مارس عام ١٩٧٥م
الموافق 26 صفـر 1395هـ
ِّ يرويها شاهد عيان ممن عايشوا أحداثها لحظة بلحظة
فـرج حـامـد فـرج
This day in Eritrean history, 9th of March 1975:
The killing of the Ethiopian spy, Tecleab Solomon, caused the massacre of about 400 persons in one evening in Agordat, on the 9th of March 1975. The Agordat massacre is simply one of the many massacres committed by the Ethiopian army or at times with the collaboration of fellow Eritreans; starting with the massacre of Ad Ibrihim in Barca in 1967. The Haile Sellasie regime started its scorched earth policy in 1967 particularly targeting Muslims and some of the worst crimes in the lowlands and Muslim villages in Akle Guzai was committed under his rule, under the direct supervision of Asrate Kassa, the then Governor of Eritrea. The Derg extended those massacres to all parts of Eritrea. We need to remind ourselves about those atrocities of Ethiopian occupation from time to time, to activate our memories that:
On that Agordat incident, I knew Tecleab and his family (not sure if they were from Eritrea or Tigray), rented one of the rooms in our compound for some years (when they came as immigrants), before they moved to another part of the town. His father and his elder brother were very decent people but he was rouge since his early years. He later ended up as a spy. He was regarded dangerous as he knew the town very well. A clandestine ELF cell in town lured him outside the town and was to deliver him to the ELF and was killed when he realized his fate and resisted. An army official who happened to visit the town by helicopter, ordered the massacre, as an act of revenge. Nobody realized that he was so important to the Ethiopian army.
Agordat Massacre of 9th March 1975: An eyewitness account in Arabic by Faraj Hamid Faraj