"River of Corpses" raises a new crisis between Sudan and Ethiopia

Sudan said, on Tuesday, that it had summoned the Ethiopian ambassador in Khartoum after a number of bodies were found floating in the river separating the two countries, while fighting continues in the Ethiopian region of Tigray between government forces and militia forces affiliated with the region.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement published by the official news agency (SUNA), that it had summoned the ambassador, Petal Amiru, on August 30 to inform him of finding more than 24 bodies.

She added that "the corpses belong to Ethiopian citizens of the Tigrayan nationality," whose hobbies were identified by some Ethiopian individuals residing in the Wad Al-Helio area.

The river that carried the bodies flows through some of the most volatile areas of the conflict in Tigray.

And a report by the American network "CNN" said earlier, quoting eyewitnesses, that some of the floating bodies are expected to come from the Ethiopian city of Hamira, which is witnessing fierce fighting.

The report said the bodies told dark stories of arrests and mass executions across the border in Hamira.

CNN confirmed that it spoke with dozens of witnesses who were picking up bodies from the river in Sudan, as well as international and local forensic experts and people trapped and hiding in Hamira, "where they apparently revealed a new phase of ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia's war." .

Hamira is one of the cities involved in the conflict that has devastated the country of 112 million people in East Africa, since the Ethiopian government launched an attack on the northern Tigray region of the country in November 2020, to overthrow the local authorities emanating from the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

The Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, justified the operation as a response to the front's attack on the barracks of the federal army after deep disagreements with the central government.

Both local Sudanese authorities and forensic experts say that all of the people whose bodies have been recovered so far may have died before being dumped in the water.

The Ethiopian government said in a statement issued by US public relations firm Mercury, that it was investigating the allegations.

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