Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on June 11, 2021
Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned human rights non-governmental organizations, strongly urge the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to adopt a resolution at its upcoming 47thsession (HRC47) on the ongoing human rights crisis in Tigray, Ethiopia.
Over the last seven months an overwhelming number of reports have emerged of abuses and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law (IHL/IHRL) during the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Reports by civil society organizations have detailed widespread massacres, violence against civilians and indiscriminate attacks across Tigray while preliminary analysis by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) indicates that all warring parties have committed abuses that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. There is now ample evidence that atrocities continue to be committed, notably by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Eritrean Defense Forces, and Amhara regional special police and affiliated Fano militias. These include indiscriminateattacks and direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, widespread and mass extrajudicial executions, rape and other sexual violence, forced displacement, arbitrary detentions, including of displaced persons, widespread destruction and pillage of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, factories and businesses, and the destruction of refugee camps, crops and livestock.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict has repeatedly expressed alarm over the widespread and systematic commission of rape and sexual violence in Tigray. On 21 April she stated that women and girls in Tigray are being subjected to sexual violence “with a cruelty that is beyond comprehension,” including gang rape by men in uniform, targeted sexual attacks on young girls and pregnant women, and family members forced to witness these horrific abuses. The SRSG also stated that these reports, coupled with assessments by healthcare providers in the region, indicate that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war.
Thousands of civilians are estimated to have been killed, while the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs believes at least 1.7 million people remain displaced. On top of ethnic targeting and massacres within Tigray, there have been reports of government discrimination, demonization and hate speech directed at Tigrayans in other parts of Ethiopia. A number of UN officials, from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to UNICEF’s Executive Director and the UN Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, have publicly called for urgent action to end the abuses in Tigray and alleviate the conflict’s devastating impact on the region’s civilian population.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator has also warned that famine is imminent in Tigray and that without a drastic upscaling of funding and access, hundreds of thousands of people could starve. Despite this looming risk, humanitarian workers have also been targeted throughout the conflict, with nine aid workers killed since November, the most recent on 29 May.
On 25 March, OHCHR and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission announced the launch of a joint investigation into the ongoing reports of atrocity crimes in Tigray. On 12 May, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) adopted an important resolution establishing a Commission of Inquiry (CoI) to investigate violations of IHL and IHRL and identify perpetrators. Unfortunately, the HRC has so far remained largely silent on Tigray, aside from a welcome joint statement delivered by Germany on behalf of 42 states on 26 February 2021.
A robust, dedicated and coordinated approach to this human rights crisis by the international community is both critical and urgent, given the gravity of ongoing crimes, the complex nature of the situation, and the involvement of various parties. After seven months of serious violations and abuses, the HRC can no longer stay silent. It should take urgent action to address the crisis and fulfil its mandate to address and prevent violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations and abuses, and to respond promptly to emergencies. We therefore respectfully urge your Mission to work towards the adoption of a resolution at HRC47 that:
· Recognizes the serious concerns expressed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect, and other senior UN officials regarding possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Tigray;
· Requests the High Commissioner to report on her investigations, findings and recommendations to date regarding the human rights situation in Tigray, Ethiopia, and possible violations of IHL and IHRL at the HRC’s 48th session in the context of an enhanced interactive dialogue;
· Also invites the ACHPR’s CoI to brief the HRC on its investigation at the enhanced interactive dialogue at the 48th session;
· Emphasizes the important role of the HRC’s prevention mandate, as outlined in Resolution 45/31, and requests the High Commissioner to brief UN member states intersessionally and on an ad-hoc basis to update the HRC on the situation in Tigray.
The adoption of such a resolution would provide a concrete foundation for the HRC to decide on the action needed to prevent further human rights violations and abuses in Tigray and ensure accountability.
Excellencies, please accept the assurances of our highest consideration,
Where’s the UN Security Council’s formal Meeting on Tigray?
At a high-level U.S. and EU event on the ongoing crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray region yesterday, USAID Administrator Samantha Power expressed frustration that the U.N. — the body in which she used to represent U.S. interests — hasn’t been able to act to stop atrocities.
The meeting came as U.N. agencies warned of “looming famine” in Tigray, where over 350,000 people are already facing catastrophic food insecurity.
“I’ve lived through great frustration on the Security Council,” Power said, referencing being unable to secure “a tough resolution on an issue of grave concern.” On Tigray: “Not even to have a formal meeting on something of this enormity — it’s shocking, truly, and will go down in history … as a very shameful period.”
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the Security Council’s failure to act “unacceptable.” “Do African lives not matter?” she asked. The Irish Mission to the U.N. has asked the Security Council to meet on Tigray, and expects it to happen next Tuesday.
The U.S. and EU released a joint statement following the meeting, calling for a cease-fire, adherence to international humanitarian law, immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access, withdrawal of Eritrean forces from Ethiopia, and a scale-up of international support.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on April 18, 2021
🔥 “More Has To Be Done By The U S & Its Allies to Address Atrocities in Tigray“
Transcript: Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on “Face the Nation,” April 18, 2021
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ambassador, I really want to ask you about Tigray. You said this week to the UN Security Council, “Do African lives not matter as much as those experiencing conflict in other countries?” You were challenging them because of the systemic rape, the gang rapes that are being carried out against young girls in Tigray, in this conflict area in Ethiopia and Eritrea. This has been well-documented. It’s been called ethnic cleansing by the United States. Why haven’t we heard from President Biden and Vice President Harris about this concern? What is the US doing?
AMB. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: Well, I think you have heard from President Biden because you’ve heard from me and you’ve heard from Secretary Blinken. President Biden has engaged with the Ethiopian government. Secretary Blinken has engaged with the Ethiopian government. President Biden sent a presidential emissary, Senator Coons, to have discussions with the Ethiopian government and lay out our concerns about the horrific situation in Tigray. And as the U.S. representative on the Security Council, I thought it was important that the Security Council’s voice also be added to the voices of concern about the situation there. We have seen these descriptions–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you are clearly saying what’s being done is not enough.
AMB. THOMAS-GREENFIELD: It is not enough, and that’s why I raised it in the Security Council, because I think we have to make sure that the victims hear our voices, but also the perpetrators know that we are concerned and that we’re watching this situation like we’re looking and- and addressing situations elsewhere in the world. So, yes, I agree with you. More has to be done. And that was the purpose of my raising this issue.
Dear Women of Tigray, Women around the world are watching in horror as Ethiopian and Eritrean forces take away everything you love. We are watching in horror, but also in awe. In awe of your strength, resilience, kindness and rebellion. We will always stand with you.
“Sexual Violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region: there is emerging evidence that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war and humiliation, with one doctor describing the attacks as effectively a form of genocide.„
On 4 November 2020 the Ethiopian army began a military offensive against the Tigray region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Four months later the ongoing conflict has killed thousands of civilians, displaced over two million, forced thousands of refugees to flee to Sudan, and caused widespread destruction.
Communication blackouts and restrictions on journalists’ access to the region made it difficult to verify survivors’ accounts; however, as more journalists are allowed in, horrific stories of sexual violence have begun to emerge.
Some women have described how while they were being raped the rapists said that they were “cleansing the blood lines’’ of the women they were raping and that these women needed to change their Tigrayan identity. Another woman recalls Eritrean soldiers saying while raping her that they were ordered “to come after the women”, while another woman recalls Eritrean soldiers saying that their actions were revenge against Tigray.
This document analysis a sample of 36 reported incidents of sexual violence that occurred in Tigray region between November 2020 and March 2021. Among this sample, 106 women and girls were affected by sexual violence and at least 144 different perpetrators were involved. Get this data on HDX.
This sample was selected because the descriptions of the incidents contained sufficient details to allow the nature and patterns of the violence that occurred to be described in this document. It is not known to what extent these examples are unique or similar to the hundreds of other incidents of sexual violence that have been reported by various hospitals around the region and by UN and other humanitarian organisations.
“The level of intolerance around Tigray is as extreme as anything I have seen”
“Forgetful of the world, by whom they were forgotten,” wrote eminent 18th-century British historian Edward Gibbon of the “Aethiopians” as they “slept near a thousand years.” Ethiopia remains the only African country not colonised—its rugged mountainous terrain kept out intruders and helped to preserve one of Africa’s most unique cultures. The country is far more prominent on the global scene these days, in large part due to a terrible famine that seared images of its starving children into the world’s collective consciousness during the 1980s. But more recently, it has attracted attention due to its remarkable economic renaissance. The country was in the ascendant and its tourism industry was champing at the bit. A campaign was launched promoting Ethiopia as the Land of Origins—the cradle of humanity out of which the antecedents of modern humans set off from Africa around 185,000 years ago.
But the world’s tendency toward forgetfulness has re-emerged since Ethiopian Prime Minister Abby Ahmed ordered the military into Tigray, the country’s most northern region, last November. This move has plunged Ethiopia into deepening internecine conflict, ethnic cleansing, and starvation. It didn’t help that the world’s attention was transfixed by the US election and the ensuing controversy when Abby sent federal troops to the region in response to attacks by forces directed by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s dominant party, on federal military bases in Tigray.
Abby set aside his 2019 Nobel Peace Prize and dismissed the international community’s meagre protestations, and the conflict has now lasted more than 110 days, producing multiple allegations of massacres. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic and the management of its fallout has sapped the political energy and attentions of UK and US governments which have long been close partners of Ethiopia. This has included providing colossal amounts of foreign aid, which you’d have thought would give them some leverage with the Ethiopian government. But apparently not, as one horror story after another emerges from the region.
The Ethiopian government has attempted to maintain total control of the narrative by locking down the region and imposing a communications blackout. This has made it next to impossible for journalists and foreign agencies to access the region and evaluate the videos of brutal executions of civilians that have emerged (one of the more recent clips appears to show Ethiopian soldiers beating and murdering Tigrayans while a crowd of Amhara cheer). Alleged massacres have been given credence by international groups and Amnesty International, which just released a report about the killing of hundreds of civilians between November 28th–29th in the city of Axum by Eritrean troops, who have been supporting Ethiopia’s military.
Since the Ethiopia-Eritrea peace deal of 2018 that won Abby his Nobel prize—a decision that increasingly looks like satire—he has fostered particularly cordial relations with Eritrea’s authoritarian leader Isaias Afwerki. Isaias loathes the TPLF, blaming them for starting the devastating 1998–2000 war between the two countries in which the northern edge of Tigray constituted the front line. Eritrea used to be Ethiopia’s most northern region before a referendum officially gave it independence in 1993. The upshot has been that, on both sides of the border, many people share the same language—Tyiggrinya—as well as Orthodox religion, cultural traditions, and even familial connections. And as with any familial meltdown, powerful emotions and potential recriminations remain a grave threat.
On November 30th, as locals in Axum began burying civilians killed by Eritrean soldiers—many of them boys and men shot on the streets or during house-to-house raids—Abby addressed the Ethiopian Parliament and told its members that “not a single civilian” had been killed by the military during the Tigray offensive. A few media outlets commented on the stunning dishonesty of this claim, but not many. The tragedy unfolding in Tigray is compounded by how the fomenting of ethnic tensions across the country has been worsening for the last few years and obvious to anyone involved with Ethiopia. Ordinary Tigrayans are targeted due to their association with the TPLF, and the worst violence might have been averted had the significant international presence in Ethiopia not chosen, as usual, to look the other way for the sake of diplomatic expediency. The military offensive followed months of feuding between Abby’s government and the leaders of the TPLF and on the back of simmering tensions between the two sides. When Abby came to power in 2018, he launched a broadside of sweeping reforms that pushed the TPLF, which used to dominate Ethiopian politics, onto the side-lines.
In addition to COVID-19 discombobulating international efforts and responses, another problem for Tigray is that Ethiopia is not at the top of the new Biden administration’s foreign policy agenda. During Joe Biden’s big “America is back” foreign policy speech on February 4th at the Department of State, the promotion of L G B T Q rights on the international stage got a notable mention. And the disaster in Yemen was recognised at least, thank goodness. But nothing about Ethiopia, despite the close bonds between the countries. The US is Ethiopia’s largest partner in humanitarian assistance—the UK is not far behind—and has contributed greatly to Ethiopia becoming a talisman for development and hope on the international stage. All that could be jeopardized as Tigray comes apart at the seams, possibly taking Ethiopia with it, and maybe even the Horn of Africa, as the ripple effects spread outward.
In addition to the conflict drawing in Eritrea, the Ethiopian military has reportedly used drones from the United Arab Emirates, which along with Saudi Arabia is involved in a power struggle between other Middle Eastern countries over the Horn of Africa. Leaving aside the tragedy within Tigray’s regional borders, it’s the sort of tense, potentially escalatory situation that foreign diplomatic corps should be all over. It threatens the hard-won stability in a region prone to volatility and the harbouring of terrorist groups.
But the UK and US governments are still entangled in domestic travails. Even before COVID-19 arrived to tie up the hands of Westminster’s and Washington’s finest, from what I saw during my time in Ethiopia, its wily politicians were already running rings round foreign diplomats. The Ethiopian government took foreign countries’ money, politely listened to their embassies expressing concerns about this or that human rights travesty, and then cracked on regardless. The added distraction caused by the pandemic perhaps explains how Abby had the audacity to respond to initial calls for peace by telling everyone to stay out of Ethiopia’s affairs. Abby continues to act like a man confident that foreign governments will have too much on their plates to interfere. The TPLF leadership has issued conditions for talks about a peaceful settlement to occur. But everything indicates Abby is in no mood to compromise.
“The level of intolerance around Tigray is as extreme as anything I have seen,” said one long-term commentator on Ethiopia who recently visited the country after working there for nearly a decade. He added that Abby is displaying “classic dictatorial tendencies.” Abby knows that donor countries such as the UK and US—like all other nations who collectively make vast donations to Ethiopia—are in a bind. Withholding money now will only worsen the mushrooming humanitarian crisis, a detail not lost on Abby and previous Ethiopian leaders as they game the international community and its liberal doctrines, while pursuing their own ruthless agendas.
A recent article in the Spectator about Tigray drew comparisons with Rwanda. When I reported in 2018 on social media users stoking ethnic violence in Ethiopia, I suggested that social media was playing a similar role to the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines broadcasts that spread much of the toxic hatred and disinformation that fuelled Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. At the time, I wavered about making the comparison to one of the international community’s most terrible and avoidable failures for fear of being alarmist. The worsening situation in Tigray is not yet on the scale of Rwanda. But just where and when should you draw the line?
It can be said with confidence, however, that Tigray involves a standoff in which the opposing sides both possess troops and militia hardened by years of wars and border skirmishes, who are not prone to worrying about the Geneva Convention or rules of engagement. The combustible ethnic element—over which the dark shadow of Rwanda especially hangs—lies at the heart of the ideological clash between Abby and the TPLF, who are at odds over the role ethnicity should play in the country’s current ethnically based federal system. In addition to their ruthless rule, the TPLF grew to be loathed during more than two decades in power because Tigrayans constitute such a small proportion of Ethiopia’s vast 110 million population. The country also includes much larger ethnic groups of the Oromo—numbering around 35 million, and to which Abby belongs—and the Amhara, numbering around 27 million.
It increasingly appears that the conflict is being used by irregular and undeclared militias, which have joined Abby’s campaign in the hope of settling perceived historical scores and ethnic grievances. According to an internal United States government report recently obtained by the New York Times, Ethiopian officials and allied militia fighters are leading a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in Tigray. The Times says the report, written in February, documents “a land of looted houses and deserted villages where tens of thousands of people are unaccounted for.” The report describes how fighters and officials from the neighbouring region of Amhara—that has a long and bitter rivalry with Tigray—are “deliberately and efficiently rendering Western Tigray ethnically homogeneous through the organized use of force and intimidation. Whole villages were severely damaged or completely erased.” (The Amhara Association of America, a US-based advocacy organization representing Ethiopia’s second-largest ethnic group, has suggested that the report was in fact a leaked memo offering only general impressions of the situation. The Association claims the Times article paints an exaggerated and unsubstantiated picture of systematic ethnic cleansing.)
Some commentators are saying it is time for the UN Security Council to weigh in. But where will that lead? As a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and their terrible fallouts, I instinctively balk at most forms of direct intervention these days. That reflex is shared by much of the international community and has sapped the appetite for the responsibility to protect. It’s an understandable reaction, given how hard achieving successful intervention overseas has proven to be. But there is an equal danger in overdoing prudent restraint and not speaking truth to slaughter. As Rwanda illustrated, genocide can come from deep within the folds of those rugged mountains that once protected Ethiopians.
This is bad news from Ethiopia. Since 2004 Ethiopia has been one of Africa’s success stories. According to the World Bank, GDP growth has ranged from 13.6% to 6.8%. In 2003 GDP per capita was $119.49 and by 2019 it had climbed to $855.76. It’s not just the direct consequences of war and violence through civil unrest which cause humanitarian crises. By 2019, starvation and much of the disease which comes along with it, was confined to war zones and areas too disrupted for aid workers and convoys to safely enter.
God help the Ethiopians and all the starving people of the world. This problem has existed since pre-Biblical times and is something of a Gordian Knot. A hundred years from now the media will still be reporting on this.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on March 6, 2021
More than 60,000 Ethiopians from the northern war-torn Tigray region have fled to Sudan and several thousands are struggling to access basic needs like electricity, water and medical help as the military conflict between the government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front continues to escalate. Stephen Cornish, Director General of Doctors Without Borders-Geneva joins from Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the humanitarian crisis
☆2015: Europe opened its Borders for Millions of Muslims
❖2021: Europe awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to a Muslim PM who’s waging a genocide against Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia
Canada just declared China’s treatment of Uighurs Muslims ‘genocide’ – What! Mind-boggling! The ”mistreatment„ of Muslim Uighur Turks in China has at best grown from almost non-existent to scarcely. Compared to what is happening in Tigray — That’s peanuts. The #TigrayGenocide is comparable to the Turkish Genocide of the Armenian Chrstians. The fact that the #TigrayGenocide is taking place in the 21st century is shame on the world. Anyways,
The Almighty JAHWEH EGZIABHER is watching!
It is still somewhat safe in the capital Mekelle, says Hielke Zantema of the Dutch aid organization Zoa. He stayed in the capital of Tigray for a week in February. “I flew on Tigray. There were soldiers everywhere at the airport, even on the runway. They don’t do anything, but they are there. On the way to the city you will pass checkpoints. As a Westerner you are immediately singled out and questioned about what you come to do here. They want to make sure that you are not a journalist, because they do not tolerate prying eyes”, said the emergency coordinator.
His first impression on the street in Mekelle: “Stress. If something small happens at all, panic immediately ensues. During that week I had to stay in my hotel room for two more days. Tigrayers are said to have erected barricades on the streets in the city. The military responded immediately. Everyone had to stay in. The roads were deserted and the shops closed. I heard that several people were shot.”
Desperate
Karla Bil, medical director of MSF-Holland (Doctors without Borders), recognizes this tense situation. She was in the city of Shire in northern Tigray from mid-January to the first week of February. “There was no electricity in Shire. The banks were closed, so people had no money and could not buy food. The hospital was no longer functioning. Inhabitants of the city were desperate. Refugees from the west of Tigray were housed in three schools. They had left everything behind. Their only possession was the clothes they wore.”
Bil had many conversations with refugees. “They were told: run or you will be killed. They were stories full of violence, destruction and rape. People have even lost their relatives.” The refugees told Bil that if an army unit or a militia lost a battle, a revenge action ensued at the neighboring village. “People were then killed or slaughtered. According to Tigrayers there is a difference: killed is shot and slaughtered is done with a machete.”
“And then there was the fear of mass rape. I helped two women who were raped”, says Bil. She was in Shire to get the hospital, clinics and mobile medical posts up and running so that the sick and injured can be treated again.
The organization of Zantema (Zoa) has been operating in Tigray for some time. The aid organization was active in refugee camps. People sheltered here fled the regime in Eritrea, often to escape lifelong military service. The nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees have once again fallen adrift with the arrival of the Eritrean army in Tigray.
“The camps are mostly empty. Some destroyed, such as Hitsats. One of our employees died there at the end of last year. I have been working from Mekelle to get our staff from Shire to Mekelle. That did not seem feasible, but eventually we succeeded. They have passed about fifteen checkpoints. But we cannot go to those refugee camps. Even visiting new camps is not possible. I wanted to take pictures of them and then show them to the world, but in the end that is too dangerous for the people there.”
Karla Bil, who was longer in Tigray, has been outside the city, in the countryside. “After permission from the Ethiopian army, we investigated by car. Sometimes we were stopped by armed men and sent back. The situation was different for each area.
“A massacre had taken place in one village. When we got there the village was deserted, a ghost town. You could hear the wind whizzing through the streets. Doors rattle. The clinic had been robbed. Employees fled.” After a short stay, Bil met some people. “They are traumatized, frightened, the fear is visible on their faces. Wounded people in the bush do not dare to be treated because they are afraid of being arrested.
“The village had been retaliated against by soldiers who lost battles in the area. In the end, some 70 villagers were murdered”, she says. The name of the village? She has doubts, because she cannot estimate what the consequences will be for the remaining residents if she does give the name. So it remains quiet. A difficult decision, but unavoidable for now.
War Crimes
It now seems that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Tigray. UN organizations have been warning this for some time. Bil from Doctors without Borders does not comment on this. “We are a medical organization, not Amnesty. Others have to determine how everything should be interpreted from their knowledge and experience. I do note that the people I met were severely traumatized. I also see many similarities with other war zones where I have been. The common man and woman, the doctor, the farmer, the teacher are always the victims. Here also. You can also see the total upheaval in Tigray. Families torn apart. It is similar to what I saw northern Nigeria after Boko Haram struck.”
She does recognize the stories about the atrocities of the Eritrean troops. “They plundered hospitals. All things were then quickly brought across the border to Eritrea, even mattresses. No, they are not positive stories you heard about those Eritrean soldiers there.”
Outside World
In any case, Bil has been able to make a start on reducing a basic form of medical care. Also in areas outside of Shire. The logistics have started somewhat again. “People keep telling me: the outside world needs to know what’s going on here”, says Bil at the end of the conversation.
Zantema has the same experience. “What stuck with me most from that week in Mekelle is my experience at the airport when I returned. An employee asked me in a low voice, “Are you from an aid organization?” When I nodded, the person said, “You have to help us. You are our only hope”. It was a cry for help that went through the bone.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 21, 2014
A hair-raising video has emerged that a car full of masked robbers exploding moments after they raided a church in Russia – and witnesses insist they were hit by lightning.
The dash cam footage uploaded by YouTube user World News TV, shows a vehicle speeding along with a police siren sounding in the background.
All of a sudden the car bursts into flames and explodes, sending debris all over the road.
The vehicle filming the incident immediately slows down and pulls over.
According to a caption accompanying the video, everyone in the runaway car died as a result of the electrical bolt.
The thieves had reportedly robbed a church in the city of St Petersburg.
To date the video has been watched more than 90,000 times. So even though it may not be real, it certainly has legs.
Many viewers though have deemed it an example of ‘divine intervention’.
According to experts, the chances of getting killed by lightning are around 300,000 to one.
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 