Following the decree of their head that “it’s Eritrea’s territory that we need, not its kin”, progressive Ethiopian governments carried out untold abominations to annihilate the Eritrean public.
The Ona slaughter was one of the various outrages submitted against Eritrean regular folks by the Ethiopian frontier armed force.
In Ona, a town two km from Keren, and encompassing towns, the frontier armed force killed the occupants, plundered their properties and consumed their homes in reprisal of the killing of Major General Teshome Ergetu, authority of the second division that was positioned in Eritrea.
The authority of the Ethiopian armed force in Eritrea was shot on twentieth November 1970 at a spot among Balwa and Habrenbeqa, and on Tuesday morning, first December 1970, the Ethiopian armed force got off their vehicles in Ona and began shooting unpredictably.
Prior to Ona, on 30th November 1970, Besikdra, found 20 kilometers north east of Keren, was focused by the Ethiopian armed force for a mass slaughtering. On that day, the military started shooting at the town mosque and killed 120 individuals who had looked for safe-haven in what they thought was the most secure spot.
Progressive Ethiopian governments increased destructive acts trying to squash the furnished opposition of the Eritrean public and sought after a seared earth procedure of obliteration and dread to hinder the battling soul of Eritreans.
In his book ‘The Red Tears’, Dawit Woldegiorgis, an Ethiopian provincial official in Eritrea, conceded the mercilessness submitted by the Ethiopian armed force.
He expressed, “The military … didn’t focus on assaulting the guerrillas straightforwardly; rather it crushed the towns associated with holding them.” The military procedure of progressive Ethiopian systems didn’t separate between the military and regular people.
