 Eyewitnesses report that most of the victims were peasants, many of whom had travelled from the neighboring woreda of Adet to buy salt because of shortages at home.In the following years, Abiy Addi exchanged hands between the TPLF and the Derg was bombed by the Derg thirteen times, 340 houses were burnt or destroyed, and over 400 of the town's inhabitants were killed or wounded.This violence caused many people to leave the area, some for Mekele, and others as far as the liberated territories around Shiraro where even merchants took up farming.