At Addis Abeba, the 86th Martyrs’ Day is being commemorated under the Martyrs’ Monument in the presence of high government leaders, veterans, and city inhabitants.
“Considering that our country has stood steady because of a great battle,” Addis Abeba Mayor Adanech Abibe said on the occasion, “we have a lot to do.”
She urged the present generation to pay attention and work hard to raise the country out of poverty.
According to Daniel Jote Mesfen, president of the Ancient Ethiopian Heroes and Patriots Organization, preserving and teaching our country’s history is one way to keep Ethiopian peace.
It commemorates the slaughter of over 30,000 Ethiopians in the capital Addis Abeba over three days in 1937, during Fascist Italy’s occupation of Ethiopia.
After being attacked by two young Ethiopian nationalists, Moges Asgedom and Abraham Deboch, Italian military General Graziani ordered the massacre.
They lobbed hand grenades at him when he was speaking at the memorial statue in the middle of Siddist Kilo, near Addis Ababa University’s main campus.
General Graziani and numerous fascist Italian officials who were there when he delivered his speech were injured.
The Martyr’s statue near Siddist Killo was erected to commemorate the three-day massacre of over 30,000 Addis Abebans.