Local officials in Kassala province, according to a Sudanese official, have discovered roughly 50 dead floating in the river between the two nations during the past week, presumably individuals fleeing the fighting in Ethiopia's Tigray region.
Some of the bodies had gunshot wounds or had their wrists bound, and an official stated on Monday that a forensic study would be required to ascertain the causes of death. Because he was not authorized to brief the media, the official talked to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Two Ethiopian health workers in Hamdayet, a Sudan border town, verified witnessing the dead discovered in the Setit River, also known as the Tekeze in Ethiopia.
The river runs through some of the most difficult sections of Tigray's nine-month conflict, where ethnic Tigrayans accuse Ethiopian and coalition forces of atrocities while fighting Tigray forces.
Two dead were discovered on Monday, one a guy with his hands bound and the other a lady with a chest wound, according to Tewodros Tefera, a surgeon who left the nearby Tigray city of Humera to Sudan. He claims that at least ten other bodies have been buried by fellow migrants.
He posted a video of guys preparing a shroud for a person floating face-down in a river.
The bodies were discovered downstream from Humera, where refugees have accused authorities and allied militants from Ethiopia's Amhara region of forcibly displacing local Tigrayans throughout the war while claiming western Tigray as their territory.
Tewodros explained, "We are actually taking care of the bodies spotted by fishermen." “I have a feeling there are more bodies floating down the river.”
While it was impossible to identify the dead, one had Tigrinya, a common name in Tigrinya, tattooed on his arm, according to the surgeon.
Another doctor who observed the victims in Hamdayet told The Associated Press that several of the deceased had facial characteristics that indicated they were ethnic Tigrayans. The doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, added, "I saw a lot of barbaric things." “Axes had struck some of them.”
Witnesses near the river told him that due to the rapid flow of the river during the rainy season, they were unable to grab all of the bodies drifting downstream.
On Monday, an Ethiopian government-created Twitter account branded the accounts of bodies a bogus campaign by Tigray forces' "propagandists."
In November, fighting broke out in Tigray between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the region's ruling party (TPLF).
The march into the region by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2019, was in reaction to TPLF attacks on federal army barracks.
Thousands have died in the war, while tens of thousands have fled to neighboring Sudan.
Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, paid a visit to a Sudanese refugee camp hosting thousands of Ethiopians fleeing the Tigray war on Monday. She will then travel to Ethiopia to persuade the government to let humanitarian supplies into Tigray, a 6 million-strong region that is experiencing the world's greatest famine crisis in a decade. According to the United States, up to 900,000 people are now facing starvation.
Despite strained relations between Khartoum and Addis Ababa, the UN food agency says it is working to supply food to Tigray through Sudan.
Negotiations to gain access to the obstructed Tigray region have proven tough, according to Marianne Ward, the World Food Program's Sudan deputy country director. She stated that the World Food Programme had already transported 50,000 tons of wheat to Ethiopia via Sudan.
