Sudan summoned the Ethiopian ambassador after dozens of corpses were found on the banks of a river between the two neighbors, the North African country’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the ministry said Ethiopian Ambassador Yibeltal Aemero was summoned on Aug. 30 and told that 29 bodies were found on the Sudanese side of the Setit River in the Kassala province between July 26 and Aug. 8.
Sudan summoned Ethiopia’s envoy after 29 bodies found in river https://t.co/cBJWAQ1SzN via @AJEnglish
— Barbara Mulvaney (@BarbaraMulvaney) September 8, 2021
The river is known in Ethiopia as the Tekeze.
The ministry said it informed the Ethiopian diplomat that the bodies were Ethiopian nationals from the Tigray ethnic group, members of which have recently been involved in conflict with Ethiopian officials.
Our latest CNN #Tigray investigation: Bodies appearing in a river in Sudan that we traced back to prison camps in Humera, Ethiopia. With our terrific team @nimaelbagir @ArvanitidisCNN @GianlucaMezzo @LauraSSpark @nickthompson Mark Baron + Alex Platt https://t.co/zSanLvpmFW
— Katie Polglase (@katie_polglase) September 5, 2021
Last month, media reports said that 50 bodies were found in the river as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Tigray region.
There was no comment from the Ethiopian authorities on the report.
Sudan summoned Ethiopia’s ambassador to inform him that 29 bodies of ethnic Tigrayans have been retrieved from a river close to the two nations’ border. https://t.co/rYkTsGPGwZ
— Simon Marks (@MarksSimon) September 8, 2021
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) ruled Ethiopia for 27 years until 2018.
Another important reporting by @cnni on the conflict in #Tigray.
— Aliaume Leroy (@Yaolri) September 7, 2021
Bodies of Tigrayans are showing up in Sudan's Wad El Hilou, which is downstream of Humera in Ethiopia where Tigrayans are held and tortured in detention centres.
Link to the story: https://t.co/cMfzxL4pmd pic.twitter.com/GWbLPayCKX
Last November, the Ethiopian government launched a sweeping law enforcement operation across Tigray in which many TPLF leaders were either killed or arrested.
Sudan Summoned Ethiopia's Ambassador Over 29 Bodies Found in River : Statement says the ambassador had been summoned on August 30 and was told that the bodies had been found between July 26 and August 8 on the Sudanese side of the Setit River, known in… https://t.co/0vkB2XpO4F pic.twitter.com/q5tABHFe1d
— Jackson M'vunganyi (@UpfrontAfrica) September 8, 2021
The insurgency is now expanding south, west, and east into the East African country’s neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.
