Saturday 17 January 2015

The sectarian violence of February 1950 that almost took the life of my parents



The sectarian riots of February 1950 that almost took the life of my parents

There are only two main Christian-Muslim conflict reported in Asmara, Eritrea (the Ethiopians supported by the Unionist Party played a big role in it), one was in 1946 where Sudanese Defence Forces were involved and the other was in February 1950. This note is about that of 1950.

The UN Commission (UNC) arrived in Eritrea on February 9 and began its months-long inquiry 5 days later. Unionist Shifta activities supported by Ethiopia increased after its arrival, they became daring, better planned, better coordinated and innovative. The main target of the shifta was to disrupt the free movement of the UNC in areas controlled by the independence bloc supporters. The shifta attempted to prevent the rural population that supported independence from having an audience with the UNC. They targeted transportation and communication systems. Telephone lines connecting Asmara with major cities of the predominantely areas pro-independence areas of the western lowlands and Masswa were continuously cut.

An active Muslim League local leader, from Mai Derese, Bashai Nessredin Saeed was killed by the Unionist Shifta at Emba Derho train station where he worked as a station manager, on February 20. According to an account of the incident written by Mufti Sheikh Ibrahim Al Mukhtar, at 07:30 in the evening of a Monday that date  5 shifta came and fired several bullets at him while he was on duty, He was critically wounded and was taken to Asmara immediately but died on the way. The reason for the killing was that they had asked him to abandon the Muslim League and join the Unionist Party (UP), but he refused. The killing sparked an outrage among Muslims in Asmara and a lot of people turned up the next day for his funeral to show their stand against the terrorist activities of the UP. A well organised funeral procession was arranged and attended by youth and Muslim dignitaries. The procession passed through three main streets before they reached the street where the UP Office was located. 

According to the Mufti, then the UP members started first to throw stones at the procession which was followed by three grenades and then chaos followed. There was open confrontation between both sides and many were killed and injured from both sides. The Police intervened by firing live ammunition, but the confrontations continued. Despite all this, the procession continued to the cemetery where the body was buried. The riots then spread to other areas and took a dangerous sectarian form. Many properties were also looted and burned. On Wednesday, the British Military Administration (BMA) declared an curfew from 5pm to 5am, but the riots continued , On Friday the curfew was extended to 22 hours.

On Thursday, the BMA administrator called for a meeting that included the Mufti and Abuna Marcos and asked them to calm the people and ask for reconciliation and both agreed. The next day a convoy of four cars: (In the first car were armed Police, in the 2nd was the Asmara Administrator with his Arabic translator, in the third were the Mufti and the Abuna and in the 4th was the Asmara & Hamassein Judge and the vice of the Abuna) moved to the districts of ‘Geza Berhanu’, Edaga Arbi, Akhria, Edaga Hamus, Aba Shawl, Hadish  Adi and Gaza Banda. In each location people were addressed with microphones to gather in both Arabic and Tigrinya and were told that the Police will not harm them. In places where there were a majority of Christians the Abuna will address them first and later the Mufti calling the people to end the violence and Vice-versa in the other locations where the majority were Muslims. Later the people were told to go back to their homes. In the evening the Mufti and the Abuna went to the Radio Station and advised the citizens to end violence. The wise men from both sides accepted the call, but the looting of properties of Muslim merchants continued for 3 more days before the riots came to an end.

On Saturday 25 february, the Copts met at the main church and Muslims at the grand mosque and discussed ways to end the violence. Both sides agreed to take an oath to prevent violence against each other. Each side appointed a four member committee to oversee the agreements. Later 31 members from each side took an oath in front of the eight member committee. To prevent further violence in other areas, the committee of both sides decided to visit the Muslim and Christian cemeteries and lied flowers on the graveyard of the victims of both sides. More than 62 persons were killed and more than 180 were injured and the damage on the properties was huge. This way the riots where the Ethiopian Laison Officer played a big role to ignite was brought to an end by the wise religious leaders and elders of both sides.

It was during this period that some Christian thugs came to kill my parents and grand parents who lived in a predominantly Christian area. A neighbour by the name Letebrhan Gual Rigbu told the thugs they could not kill my family ( I was not even born then) before they killed her, first. After a lot of heated discussion they complied and left, thus my family survived. There were many such stories from both sides.

The whole report of the Mufti in Arabic can be accessed through this link:



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