Ethiopia: Political prisoners from Gondar being tortured in Tigray

ESAT News (August 31, 2017)

Thirty prisoners taken from Wolkait, Gondar and locked in a prison in Mekelle, Tigray are being tortured, according to the chairman of the Arena Party.

The chairman, Abraha Desta wrote in his blog that thirty people were taken from Humera and thrown into a prison in Mekelle. He said they are handcuffed at all times except once a week to shower.

Desta wrote that the whereabouts of six of the prisoners is not known. He said there is fear that they might have been killed or are held in the underground sections of the prison.

According to Desta, prisoners from Wolkait are held separately from others in Mekelle prison and they are in handcuffs at all times.

The people of Wolkait, Tegede and Telemt have been targeted by the Tigray led regime ever since they have opposed the incorporation of their land into Tigray. Their movement had grown into a wide anti government protest in the Amhara region last year in which TPLF forces killed at least 200 people in the Gondar and Bahir Dar and detained hundreds including the leader of the movement Colonel Demeke Zewdu.