Nairobi-based East Africa correspondent reporter Cara Anna, Stockholm video journalist David Keyton and Copenhagen, Denmark-based immersive storytelling producer/photographer Natalie Castañeda used a distinctive, nuanced approach to explore one of the biggest unknowns in Ethiopia’s yearlong Tigray conflict: the death toll.
The story, funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, went beyond the numbers, humanizing the horrific toll of the war through a Tigrayan man, Desta Haileselassie, who collects the names of the dead — a groom, a lawyer, an ambulance driver — more than 3,000 Ethnic Tigrayans so far. He reluctantly revealed to Anna that 19 members of his own family had died. Keyton and Castañeda conducted a delicate interview with Desta in Stockholm, while Anna attended online. The listkeeper was deeply affected by his experience but the journalists earned his trust, gently eliciting information from him while careful not to re-traumatize him.
Desta Haileselassie, left, and his mother Amlishaway are shown in a photo on a bookshelf at Desta’s home in Stockholm, Oct. 18, 2021. Desta hasn’t spoken with her since June 27, when communications with the Tigray region of Ethiopia were cut off. Since then, every day’s attempt has met silence. He is one of many in the Tigrayan diaspora who have waited for months to know whether loved ones are alive.
AP Photo / Nat Castañeda
Desta Haileselassie poses for a portrait at his home in Stockholm, Sept. 19, 2021. He has confirmed 3,080 names of the Tigrayan dead in Ethiopia. The actual number of dead is almost certainly much higher.
AP Photo / Nat Castañeda
Tewodrose Tirfe poses for a portrait in front of his home in Harrisburg, N.C., Oct. 21, 2021. His group, the Amhara Association of America, is trying to find out how many Amhara, allied with Ethiopian government against Tigray, have been killed in the war that erupted in November 2020 in the Tigray region. The list has reached almost 2,000 Amhara. The actual number is likely higher.
AP Photo / Allen G. Breed
Tewodrose Tirfe helps his sons, Ymesgen, 10, left, and Adane, 12, with their homework in the kitchen of their home in Harrisburg, N.C., Oct. 21, 2021. Tirfe is chairman of the Amhara Association of America, an advocacy group for Ethiopia's second-largest ethnic group, allied with the Ethiopian government against Tigray.
AP Photo / Allen G. Breed
The dead body of an unidentified man lies on the ground near the village of Chenna Teklehaymanot, in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia, Sept. 9, 2021.
AP Photo
The resulting package is powerful and engaging — and balanced, noting atrocities and victims on both sides of the conflict. It introduces victims by name and goes on to tell their stories. At its most personal it focuses on Desta’s mother, whom he hasn’t been able to reach since June. Instead he listens to recordings he made of her voice.
The photos and presentation by Castañeda are no less compelling as AP continues to lead coverage of the Tigray conflict despite severe restrictions on access. Readers, competitors and experts complimented the work, with one describing it as a “masterpiece of precision, thoughtfulness and humanity.”