Local authorities in Sudan’s Kassala state have found about 50 bodies, apparently people fleeing the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, floating in the river between the countries over the past week, some with gunshot wounds or their hands bound, a Sudanese government official said.
A forensic investigation is needed to determine the causes of death, the Sudanese official said on condition of anonymity on Monday.
Two Ethiopian health workers in the Sudan border community of Hamdayet confirmed seeing the bodies found in the Setit River, which is known as the Tekeze in Ethiopia.
The river flows through some of the most troubled areas of the nine-month conflict in Tigray, where ethnic Tigrayans have accused Ethiopian and allied forces of atrocities while battling Tigray forces.
Two of the bodies were found on Monday: a man with bound hands and a woman with a chest wound, said surgeon Tewodros Tefera, who fled the Tigray city of Humera to Sudan.
Fellow refugees have buried at least 10 other bodies, he added.
He shared a video of men appearing to prepare a shroud for a body floating face-down in the river.
Tewodros said that the bodies were found downstream from Humera, where authorities and allied fighters from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have been accused by refugees of forcing out local Tigrayans during the war, while claiming that western Tigray is their land.
“We are actually taking care of the bodies spotted by fishers,” Tewodros said. “I suspect there are more bodies in the river.”
While it was difficult to identify the bodies, one had a common name in the Tigray language, Tigrinya, tattooed on his arm, the surgeon said.
Another doctor working in Hamdayet who saw the bodies said that some of the corpses had facial markings indicating that they were ethnic Tigrayans.
“I saw a lot of barbaric things,” said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Some had been struck by an axe.”
Witnesses at the river told him that they had not been able to catch all of the bodies floating downstream because the water is flowing more swiftly during the rainy season, the doctor said.
On Monday, a Twitter account created by the Ethiopian government called the reports of bodies a fake campaign by “propagandists” among the Tigray forces.
US Agency for International Development administrator Samantha Power on Monday visited a refugee camp in Sudan that is housing thousands of Ethiopians who have fled the Tigray war.
She is next to visit Ethiopia to press the government to allow humanitarian aid into Tigray, a region of about 6 million people.
The US has said that up to 900,000 people in the region are facing famine conditions.
The UN World Food Programme said that it is working to provide food to Tigray through Sudan, despite frayed ties between Khartoum and Addis Ababa.
Negotiations to access the blocked Tigray region have proven difficult, said Marianne Ward, deputy country director of the UN World Food Programme in Sudan.
The agency has moved 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Ethiopia through Sudan, Ward said.
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