The havoc of clustermunitions in Ethiopia

On 5 June 1998, at the time of the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia, Ayder School in the town of Mekele was bombarded. Planes flew over twice, dropping cluster bombs directly on the school and its vicinity. They killed 53 and wounded 158.

Mekele, capital of Tigray, was a small town like any other until the fatal day of 5 June 1998. On that day, everyone was busy with their usual activities — parents were tending cattle, women were working at home. At the school that had been recently inaugurated, the children were working on their lessons. The school day was almost over - some pupils were already on the way home, when all of a sudden hell broke loose: planes were dropping cluster bombs on the school. Terrified children ran out while parents ran to see what was happening. Shortly afterwards, the planes passed overhead again, this time hitting the adults who had come to help their children.

Aynalem Zenebe, who is now 18, was a little girl of seven at the time. She was going home from school when cluster bombs exploded in her path. She was seriously injured. One of her legs had to be amputated. “I lost consciousness“, she remembers “I was told that someone took me to Mekele Hospital. I stayed there for five months before being transferred to Addis Ababa Hospital“.

Aynalem’s youngest brother and two of her older sisters were also injured in the bombing. “In my family, we prefer not to talk about this incident,” admits the teenager. “I was too young to imagine the consequences that this amputation would have on my life. It took me a few days to realize that I could never play with other children the way I used to.”

Today, 10 years later, Aynalem has found her calling. She is taking a business course. In addition, she joined the fight against cluster munitions. Aynalem is one of the “Ban Advocates“, a group of cluster munitions victims who testify successfully all over the world to convince States to sign the Oslo Treaty. Thanks to this action, the use, manufacture and transfer of cluster munitions will be prohibited and victims will receive assistance. “I don’t want other people to have the same problems I have had,” says Aynalem, “and I want to make governments understand how horrible these weapons are.“