We the undersigned wish to draw attention to the devastation of Tigrayan cultural heritage that took place during the war waged in Tigray, northern Ethiopia. This conflict claimed thousands of lives since it began in November 2020 and ended in January 2023. The people of Tigray have endured extensive bombardment, followed by a siege denying them access to food, water, medication, electricity, and communications. Another casualty of the conflict is cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible. Although humanitarian issues in Tigray are of the utmost concern to us at this time, the intent to decimate the Tigrayan people and their history adds an additional, appalling component to this brutal conflict.

Why is cultural heritage important?

Cultural heritage is at the heart of peoples’ lives and material culture is the irreplaceable physical manifestation of that heritage. The willful destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime that has truly profound implications. It dissociates people from their history and their physical, cultural and sacred landscapes. It represents a devastating attack on the identity of a people. Its loss has had a dreadful impact in Tigray because cherished cultural properties are often found in churches, which also function to maintain social cohesion in difficult times. In this regard, the destruction of churches and the murder of priests and elders, who hold knowledge of oral and religious history and other important intangible heritage, are atrocities that often accompany genocide. 

The Evidence

Tigray has produced archaeological and historical evidence of ancient societies dating to more than 10,000 years ago to recent times, including the development of Aksumite and later medieval kingdoms starting by the 4th century BCE. These archaeological and historical remains contain substantial evidence of ancient societies that form the foundation of the region’s rich cultural heritage. There are over 3000 churches and monasteries in Tigray. The earliest known monasteries date to the 6th century CE, shortly after the coming of Christianity to the region. From the 4th to the 21st century, Tigray has had an uninterrupted and rich Christian presence involving thousands of churches and associated institutions, including scribal schools, religious painters and sculptors, artisans, cantors, and composers of hymns, and exegetical schools responsible for interpretive and hermeneutical traditions. Tigray is the locality for the earliest Muslim communities in the Horn of Africa, and a notable portion of its current population are followers of the Sunni order.

Aerial bombardments coupled with the intensive ground offensive that has occurred in Tigray during the conflict have led to serious concerns about the integrity of its cultural properties. There have been credible reports of the looting of monasteries, churches, and mosques and the killing of religious clergy, who embody an irreplaceable source of intangible cultural heritage. These reports are deeply concerning. Several research groups have been compiling and documenting incidents of cultural heritage destruction in Tigray since the beginning of the conflict. An excellent compendium of Tigrayan cultural heritage crimes can be found in an article by Anthony Shaw (https://eritreahub.org/the-destruction-of-tigrays-world-important-cultural-heritage ). Some of the most egregious and publicized examples include the shelling of the 6th-century monastery of Debre Damo and the al-Nejashi Mosque. Other churches and sacred places were the location of horrific massacres of parishioners and clergy, including Maryam TsionChurch in Aksum (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Maryam Dengelat (see also https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/africa/ethiopia-tigray-dengelat-massacre-intl/index.html) and there are many more examples of local churches which have been impacted. These rural churches also play an inestimable role in the preservation of Tigrayan culture and history.

We call on all relevant international bodies, including UNESCO, ICOM, ICCROM  and ICOMOS to use their platforms to highlight Tigray's endangered cultural heritage which is of incalculable value to the history of human civilization; to advocate for an immediate halt to the looting and destruction of Tigrayan cultural properties; and to provide resources necessary to begin the task of rebuilding cultural heritage infrastructure in Tigray. 

We urge the federal governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea, both of which are State Parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the UNESCO World Heritage Convention of 1972, to take immediate steps to halt the looting and destruction of cultural heritage in Tigray; to be proactive in securing remaining cultural properties; to immediately launch efforts to recover lost treasures; and to initiate investigations of human rights abuses, including the destruction of cultural heritage, to hold accountable the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

We feel that the time has long passed to act in a forceful and responsible manner to rectify the humanitarian and cultural heritage disasters that engulfed Tigray and its people for more than two years.

This petition was written by Friends of Tigray. Our short documentary Tigray At War | Cultural Heritage Under Siege, premieres Saturday, May 6th, 2023 at 9:15 AM EST. Find it here: https://youtu.be/X6o8afEg0CM