At least 30 bodies have washed ashore on the River Setit bordering Ethiopia’s Tigray region in Sudan, six witnesses report.
Setit River, also known as the Tekeze in Ethiopia, is the current borderline between Tigrayan and Amhara territory controlled by forces allied with Ethiopia’s federal government.
Sudan and Ethiopia are also separated by the river at different points.
According to Reuters, which cited two Ethiopian refugees and four Sudanese witnesses, a surgeon – Dr. Tewodros Tefera – who escaped from the Ethiopian border town of Humera, said he buried 10 bodies over the past six days in Sudan.
Tefera added that local fishermen and refugees told him that another 28 had been recovered, including seven on Monday.
“They were shot in their chest, abdomen, legs… and also had their hands tied,” he said
The surgeon added that he identified three bodies belonging to Tigrayans from Humera, with the aid of refugees.
A video he shared shows men digging a grave and burying what appears to be the same body in a newly dug grave for a body that washed up on shore.
Also, an Ethiopian refugee from Humera, who claimed anonymity, said he found nine swollen bodies, tied with a rope but with no sign they were “hit or shot.”
He shared pictures showing bruised and swollen corpses lying on the banks of the river.
According to an Ethiopian government account on Twitter, floating bodies circulating on social media were fake accounts that were spread by Tigrayan propagandists.
The government’s position conflicts with those of two local Sudanese officials and two residents of Wad Alhilew village near the Setit dam in Kassala state who said they had recovered five bodies from the river on Monday, nine on Sunday and six on Saturday.
According to the four, some of the bodies were shot, others tied up by their hands but appeared to be uninjured.