Africa-Press-Ethiopia<\/p>\n
Bodies with gunshot wounds lay in the streets for days in Ethiopia\u2019s holiest city. At night, residents listened in horror as hyenas fed on the corpses of people they knew. But they were forbidden from burying their dead by the invading Eritrean soldiers.<\/p>\n
Those memories haunt a deacon at the country\u2019s most sacred Ethiopian Orthodox church in Axum, where local faithful believe the ancient Ark of the Covenant is housed. As Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region slowly resumes telephone service after three months of conflict, the deacon and other witnesses gave The Associated Press a detailed account of what might be Tigray\u2019s deadliest massacre.<\/p>\n
For weeks, rumors circulated that something ghastly had occurred at the Church of St. Mary of Zion in late November, with estimates of several hundred people killed. But with Tigray cut off from the world and journalists blocked from entering, little could be verified as Ethiopian and allied fighters pursued the Tigray region\u2019s fugitive leaders.<\/p>\n
The deacon, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he remains in Axum, said he helped count the bodies \u2014 or what was left after hyenas fed. He gathered victims\u2019 identity cards and assisted with burials in mass graves.<\/p>\n
He believes some 800 people were killed that weekend at the church and around the city, and that thousands in Axum have died in all. The killing continues: On the day he spoke to the AP last week he said he had buried three people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we go to the rural areas, the situation is much worse,\u201d the deacon said.<\/p>\n
The atrocities of the Tigray conflict have occurred in the shadows. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for making peace with neighboring Eritrea, announced the fighting as the world focused on the US election. He accused Tigray\u2019s regional forces, whose leaders dominated Ethiopia for nearly three decades before he took office, of attacking the Ethiopian military. Tigray\u2019s leaders called it self-defense after months of tensions.<\/p>\n
While the world clamors for access to Tigray to investigate suspected atrocities on all sides and deliver aid to millions of hungry people, the prime minister has rejected outside \u201cinterference.\u201d He declared victory in late November and said no civilians had been killed. His government denies the presence of thousands of soldiers from Eritrea, long an enemy of the Tigray leaders.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia\u2019s narrative, however, has crumbled as witnesses like the deacon emerge. The foreign ministry on Thursday acknowledged that \u201crape, plunder, callous & intentional mass killings\u201d could occur in a conflict where \u201cmany are illegally armed.\u201d Its statement blamed Tigray forces for leaving the region \u201cvulnerable\u201d and said any serious offense will be investigated. It did not mention Eritrean soldiers.<\/p>\n
Axum, with its ancient ruins and churches, holds major significance for the Ethiopian Orthodox faithful, who believe that the Ark of the Covenant, built to hold the tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, is located there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you attack Axum, you attack first of all the identity of Orthodox Tigrayans but also of all Ethiopian Orthodox Christians,\u201d said Wolbert Smidt, an ethnohistorian who specializes in the region. \u201cAxum itself is regarded as a church in the local tradition, \u2018Axum Zion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In a normal year, thousands of people would have gathered at the Zion church in late November to celebrate the day Ethiopians believe the Ark of the Covenant was brought there after it disappeared from Jerusalem in ancient times.<\/p>\n
Instead, the church had become a refuge for people who fled the fighting elsewhere in Tigray. They sheltered there as worship services were underway two days before the anniversary.<\/p>\n
Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers had arrived in Axum more than a week earlier, with heavy bombardment. But on November 28 the Eritrean soldiers returned in force to hunt down members of the local militia who had mobilized against them in Axum and nearby communities.<\/p>\n
The deacon recalled soldiers bursting into the church, cornering and dragging out worshipers and shooting at those who fled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI escaped by chance with a priest,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we entered the street, we could hear gunfire all over.\u201d They kept running, stumbling over the dead and wounded along with others trying to find places to hide.<\/p>\n
Most of the hundreds of victims were killed that day, he said, but the shooting and looting continued the following day.<\/p>\n
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Africa-Press-Ethiopia Bodies with gunshot wounds lay in the streets for days in Ethiopia\u2019s holiest city. At night, residents listened in horror as hyenas fed on the corpses of people they knew. But they were forbidden from burying their dead by the invading Eritrean soldiers. Those memories haunt a deacon at the country\u2019s most sacred Ethiopian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[241,236],"class_list":["post-2988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press-ethiopia","tag-tigray"],"yoast_head":"\n