Bodies seen in river bordering Ethiopia, East Sudan residents say

The bodies were wounded and had their hands tied, one witness says

Ethiopians who fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray region, collect water from the Setit river on the Sudan-Ethiopia border in eastern Kassala state.

Residents of an east Sudanese town say they have seen bodies floating in the river on the border with Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray region.

The unidentified bodies have been seen in the Setit River – known in Ethiopia as the Tekeze – since Saturday, according to residents from Wad Al-Hilou in Sudan's Kassala state.

“The bodies I saw today were wounded and had their hands tied,” one witness told AFP, declining to be identified.

Tefera Tewodoros, an Ethiopian doctor working at Sudan's Hamdayit refugee transit centre on the border, said he saw nine bodies of men and women at the river on Monday alone.

“We also saw 28 bodies on Saturday and Sunday in Wad Al-Hilou, mostly of men with gunshots on different parts of their bodies,” he said.

A fisherman living in the area who requested anonymity said he saw bodies lying on the riverbanks.

Photographs circulated online purporting to show bodies washed up by the river. AFP was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the images.

Fighting in Tigray broke out in November between Ethiopia's federal forces and the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Amhara militia fighters gather in the village of Adi Arkay, 180 kilometres north-east of the city of Gondar, in Amhara region, northern Ethiopia in July, 2021. All photos: AFP

Amhara militia on patrol. The Amhara government announced that local forces would go on the offensive against rebels from northern neighbour Tigray.

Fighters from the Amhara militia rest take a break. The Amhara government said its forces would go into 'attack mode' in an effort to reverse Tigrayan gains. AFP

Fenta Tereffe, spokesman for North Gondar zone Amhara forces, in the city of Debark, 75 kilometres north-east of Gondar. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed to 'repel' attacks by Ethiopia’s enemies.

A boy shivers in the rain as drought-hit people carry sacks of maize received from an aid agency in southern Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, said his forces' move into the region was in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.

The conflict has killed thousands and sent tens of thousands fleeing into neighbouring Sudan.

Ethiopia's government on Monday said reports of a massacre in the town of Humera, in western Tigray, were “fake”, claiming “propagandists” were “using false images and showing graphic images” to spread disinformation.

The Tekeze River runs through Humera.