Africa-Press-Ethiopia<\/p>\n
At least 800 people were reportedly killed in Ethiopia as worshippers and soldiers risked their lives to protect what Christians there say is the sacred Ark of the Covenant from local militia.<\/p>\n
Ethiopian Christians claim the Ark \u2014 the wooden chest built to hold the Ten Commandments of Moses \u2014 is being kept safe in a chapel in the holy northern city of Axum in the Tigray region.<\/p>\n
The battle between Ethiopian soldiers and rebel fighters happened in the fall, The Sunday Times reported, but it is only being reported now.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people heard the shooting they ran to the church to give support to the priests and others who were there protecting the ark,\u201d Getu Mak, a local university lecturer, told The Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly some of them were killed for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little was known about the deadly siege since Tigray is cut off from the world and journalists had been blocked from entering the region.<\/p>\n
A deacon residing in Axum told the Associated Press he helped count the bodies, gathered victims\u2019 identification cards and assisted with burials in mass graves.<\/p>\n
He believes that an estimated 800 people were killed at the church and around the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you attack Axum, you attack first of all the identity of Orthodox Tigrayans but also of all Ethiopian Orthodox Christians,\u201d Wolbert Smidt, an ethnohistorian who specializes in the region, told the AP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Africa-Press-Ethiopia At least 800 people were reportedly killed in Ethiopia as worshippers and soldiers risked their lives to protect what Christians there say is the sacred Ark of the Covenant from local militia. Ethiopian Christians claim the Ark \u2014 the wooden chest built to hold the Ten Commandments of Moses \u2014 is being kept safe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-2992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-africa-press-ethiopia"],"yoast_head":"\n