The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Hundreds were massacred in the holy city of Ethiopia: "Hyenas eat corpses in the streets" - Walla! news

2021-02-19T17:28:14.586Z


After about three months of being cut off from the world, Matigrai testimonies describe atrocities by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. In one incident, probably the deadliest in the war, about 800 people were killed. "In the countryside the situation is much worse," said a local priest


  • news

  • World news

  • Africa

Hundreds massacred in Ethiopia's holy city: "Hyenas eat corpses in the streets"

After about three months of being cut off from the world, Matigrai testimonies describe atrocities by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.

In one incident, probably the deadliest in the war, about 800 people were killed.

"In the countryside the situation is much worse," said a local priest

Tags

  • Ethiopia

  • Abbey Ahmad

  • Tigray

IP

Friday, February 19, 2021, 7:16 p.m.

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on WhatsApp

  • Share on general

  • Share on general

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Email

0 comments

  • Israel and Syria are negotiating Russia-mediated ...

  • Biden: We will not lift sanctions on Iran until it stops ...

  • Edelstein: Workers in places with an audience will have to get vaccinated or ...

  • Spain: Dozens injured and detained in demonstrations against the rapper's imprisonment ...

  • Snow weekend: Running in the stormy weather in Ein ...

  • A 17-meter-sized whale cub was ejected in the southern reserve ...

  • Facebook has blocked the publication of news in Australia in a controversial escalation ...

  • Hundreds of protesters in the Negev following the rape of the girl in the robbery: "For the virus ...

  • US President Joe Biden presents his foreign policy ...

In the video: Tigray district president taken from me (Photo: Reuters)

Corpses with gunshot wounds lay for days in the holiest city in Ethiopia.

As night fell, residents heard in horror how the hypocrites were eating the bodies of their acquaintances.

They could not bury their dead because the invading Eritrean army prevented them from doing so.



These memories haunt the head of Ethiopia's holiest church, in the city of Axum, where, members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church believe, the Ark of the Covenant is buried.

While the lines in Tigray County are back in operation three months after the conflict began, the pastor and other eyewitnesses gave the Associated Press a detailed description of the killings.

This is perhaps the deadliest massacre since the outbreak of the conflict.



For several weeks, rumors spread about a horror that took place at St. Mary's Church of Zion in late November, with estimates of several hundred dead.

Since Tigray was virtually cut off from the world and journalists were not given access to the province, very little information could be verified while the Ethiopian army and its allies pursued the leaders of the rebel region.



The priest, who spoke anonymously because he still lives in Axum, said he helped count the bodies, or what was left of them after the hyenas were fed from them.

He collected the IDs of the victims, and helped bury them in mass graves.



He believes about 800 people were killed during that weekend in the church and around the city, out of thousands killed in the city itself in total.

He said the killings continue: On the day he spoke to the AP news agency last week, he buried three people.



"In the countryside the situation is much worse," said the pastor, a deacon in his position.

More on Walla!

NEWS

The Eritrean army terrorizes Tigray, and retaliates by force

To the full article

More on the war

  • The Ethiopian army has occupied the rebel capital in the Tigray region

  • War and peace, and war

  • This way you will be able to overcome the pain in the hip joint and avoid surgery

Acute humanitarian crisis.

Nurse, refugee from Tigari, who moved to the US (Photo: AP)

The atrocities in Tigray took place in the dark.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmad, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his peace with Eritrea, announced the start of hostilities as the world focused on US elections.

He accused the leaders of Tigray province, who for about three decades controlled local politics until he came to power, of attacking the Ethiopian army.

Tigray leaders said they acted in self-defense after months of tension.



While the world begged for access to Tigray to investigate suspicions of atrocities on both sides and deliver aid to millions of starving civilians, the prime minister rejected foreign "intervention".

He declared victory in late November and claimed no civilian was killed in the fighting.

His government has denied the presence of thousands of soldiers from Eritrea, the bitter enemy of the Tigray leadership.

The narrative of the Ethiopian government is crumbling.

Sudan refugee camp (Photo: AP)

However, Ethiopia's narrative began to crumble after evidence like those of the priest emerged.

The Foreign Ministry in Addis Ababa acknowledged yesterday that "rape, looting, cruelty and deliberate mass killing" can happen in a conflict where "many are armed against the law".

He promised that significant crimes would be investigated, but he did not mention Eritrean soldiers.



Axum, for its ancient remains and churches, is of great importance to Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.

According to the belief, the Ark of the Covenant, in which the Ten Commandments were kept, is in it.



"If you attack Axum, you are first and foremost attacking the identities of all Orthodox challengers, as well as all Orthodox Christians in Ethiopia," said Wolbert Schmidt, an ethnic history expert in the region.

"Axum itself is considered a church according to local tradition, 'Axum Zion'."

  • Share on Facebook

  • Share on WhatsApp

  • Share on general

  • Share on general

  • Share on Twitter

  • Share on Email

0 comments

Source: walla

All news articles on 2021-02-19

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-28T05:06:24.228Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.