Conflict in Tigray: several bodies discovered on the border of Sudan and Ethiopia
Ethiopian region of Tigray, May 2021 (illustration).
© RFI / Sébastien Németh
Text by: RFI Follow
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Several bodies were found in a river on the border with Sudan and Ethiopia over the weekend.
Testimonies suggest that these are bodies of Tigray refugees while the humanitarian situation is very worrying in the Tigray region where the Addis Ababa government has sent the army against the Tigray rebel forces.
Since last November, two million people have fled this region.
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At least thirty bodies floated in this river which constitutes a sort of border currently between the territory controlled by the Tigrayan forces and those under the control of the Amhara forces, allies of the Ethiopian federal government.
This river which adjoins the northern region of Ethiopia on the Tigrayan side also crosses Sudan.
It was Ethiopian refugees who first found the bodies believed to be those of Tigrayans fleeing the fighting.
They apparently received bullets in the abdomen, chest and legs according to witnesses' explanations.
On social media, an account linked to the Ethiopian government said the information was false and that it was a smear campaign by Tigrayan propagandists.
But residents of the eastern Sudanese town of Wad al-Hilou said they saw the bodies with wounds and some were even tied up.
In recent days, there has been an increase in abuses.
People are arrested and forcibly put on buses, restrictions on access to humanitarian aid, occupation of their land.
RFI was able to reach on the phone an official of an NGO who explained that in recent days, Ethiopians from Tigray were crossing the border more and more to seek refuge in neighboring Sudan.
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To read also:
Conflict in Tigray: the Ethiopian federal government calls for mobilization
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