Tears of Wollega - A Story of Genocide is the digital version of a traveling photography exhibition highlighting the most intense chapter of an ongoing 30-year genocide of the ethnic Amhara people of Ethiopia by ethnic extremist forces within the country. The original exhibit was initially derived from the reporting on ethnic Amharas who were forced to flee the Oromia region in Ethiopia to escape ethnic cleansing and mass murder at the hands of the current Ethiopian regime under Abiy Ahmed Ali and Oromo extremist elements. The exhibition has since grown to include acts of genocide at the hands of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (or TPLF) committed over 30+ years since 1983 up until the present day.
This work was created by photographer Jemal Countess between December 2020 and April of 2022 over the course of 6 trips to Ethiopia to report on the human toll of the war between the Government of Ethiopia and the TPLF. The work highlighting the plight of survivors of genocide in Wollega was done in collaboration with efforts undertaken by journalist Betty “Sheba” Tekeste and Jemal Countess worked to bring to light the plight of ethnic Amharas in Ethiopia facing genocide.