In Sudan, Tigrayans fear the worst as bodies wash up in river

In a town in eastern Sudan, Tigrayan Gabratansay Gabrakhristos panics every time his phone rings: it could be sad news that other bodies have washed up on the banks of a river bordering Ethiopia.

Gabratansay says he has been receiving such phone calls since late July, when Sudanese villagers found the first body floating on the Setit River, known as Tekeze in Ethiopia.

Since then, he says, a flood of calls have followed, bringing news of even more horrific findings of swollen and deformed bodies with tied hands and serious injuries.

“This has been the case for weeks now. Once a new body is found, they call me and other Tigrayans here,” Gabratansay told AFP in Wad al-Hiliou, a village in the eastern Sudanese state of Kassala.

“We may not know them personally, but they are the bodies of our people,” says the 40-year-old farmer.

Gabratansay and others like him recovering the bodies fear they may be evidence of mass executions by government-allied troops in Tigray, a small but historically powerful region in northern Ethiopia that has been ravaged by more of nine months of fighting between the army and the battle. hardened local forces.

A Tigrayan refugee places a makeshift cross on the banks of the Setit River on the border with Ethiopia. By ASHRAF SHAZLY (AFP)

Allegations of atrocities, ethnic cleansing and massacres, including a massacre in the town of Humera, in western Tigray, have escalated. All of them have been rejected by the Ethiopian government as “fabricated”.

Along with other Tigrayans, Gabratansay says he helped recover and bury around 50 bodies found in the river, including five women.

Many of the corpses had gunshot wounds, others appeared to have suffered burns, deep gashes or missing body parts, and nearly all had their hands tied behind their backs, he said.

“Hands tied”

Gabratansay said that based on information received from Humera, “around 150 Tigrayan prisoners were executed by federal forces with their hands tied behind their backs.”

UNHCR, like other aid agencies, said earlier this month that it had “no access on the Ethiopian side of the border”. By ASHRAF SHAZLY (AFP)

These testimonies came from Tigrayans who had fled Humera as well as people still in the town who spoke of hearing “screams and gunshots,” he said.

“We believe there are more bodies in the river, but we haven’t found them yet.”

Tigrayan Kahsay Gabrselsey, who participated in the search for the bodies, believes they belong to the Tigrayans who were allegedly executed in Humera.

“We heard that federal forces killed dozens of Tigrayan prisoners … and threw them into the river,” he said. “We think it’s their bodies.”

Although the men have little evidence to support their claims, they say some of the bodies had tattoos written in their language – Tigrinya.

“One body had a tattoo of the words ‘I love you’ on his arm, and another also had his beloved’s name engraved on his arm,” says Tigrayan Gebremaden Gabro.

Tigray has been ravaged by violence since November, when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to overthrow the region’s ruling party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray, a move he said was in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.

Thousands of people have been killed and tens of thousands forced to flee to Sudan.

Weeks after the fighting began, Abiy – winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize – declared victory after his forces captured Tigray’s capital, Mekele.

In June, an astonishing turn of events occurred when the TPLF regained control of Mekele and much of Tigray.

However, the fighting spread as western Tigray remained under the control of allied government forces and the TPLF pushed east and south into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions.

Shallow sand graves

The men shared footage with AFP of what appeared to be several bodies floating on the surface before being swept up on mats and buried in shallow sand graves on the banks of a river.

Tigrayan refugee Gabratansay Gabrakhristos says he helped recover and bury around 50 bodies found in the river. By ASHRAF SHAZLY (AFP)

“We wish we could have taken them to a better place to be buried, but we couldn’t,” Gabratansay said, pointing to the large stones he placed atop the grave of the first body he buried.

“The bodies were too decomposed and smelly and we had little means to transport them.”

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has confirmed the discovery of a body and several fresh graves, but said it could neither confirm the identity of those buried nor how they died.

UNHCR, like other aid agencies, said in early August that it had “no access to the Ethiopian side of the border”.

Humanitarian needs have increased in Tigray as aid workers struggle to reach those stranded by the conflict.

In July, the UN warned that 400,000 people had “crossed the threshold of famine”, and 1.8 million more were about to follow them.

Amnesty International this month accused Allied forces in Addis Ababa of hundreds of cases of sexual violence and rape, some involving sexual slavery and mutilation.

Ethiopia has accused Amnesty of poor methodology and of carrying out “sensational attacks and smear campaigns” against it.

But the Tigrayans living in Sudan fear the worst for their families trapped in the region.

“My family could not escape because they live in a village far from the border,” explains Legese Mallow, from Adigrat in Tigray.

“We just wish the war would end so we could go out there and see who’s dead and who’s still alive.”