Ethiopian government forces allegedly “executed” three employees of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) while they were on a humanitarian mission in Ethiopia’s war-hit northern Tigray region four years ago, a senior MSF official has told the BBC.
The victims, including 35-year-old Spanish national María Hernández Matas, 32-year-old Yohannes Halefom Reda, and 31-year-old Tedros Gebremariam, were shot at close range while wearing MSF vests and traveling in a vehicle with the charity’s flag and logos.
According to Raquel Ayora, MSF Spain’s general director, the team was fully identifiable as humanitarian aid workers, and their travel route had been shared in advance with fighting groups. “They were executed,” Ayora said. “They were facing their attackers [and] were shot at very close range… several times.”
MSF has released its findings after the Ethiopian government failed to provide a “credible account” of the deaths despite multiple meetings over the past four years.
The charity’s investigation, which relied on satellite images, witnesses, and publicly available information on the Ethiopian military’s movements, placed Ethiopian troops at the “precise location” where the killings occurred.
The incident occurred on June 24, 2021, during the height of the Tigray conflict, which broke out in 2020 and ended two years later following a peace deal brokered by the African Union.
The conflict resulted in an estimated 600,000 deaths, largely due to fighting, starvation, and lack of healthcare.
