NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – The Eritrean government is dismissing a story from The Associated Press as “outrageous lies” where witnesses describe a massacre of several hundred people carried out by Eritrean soldiers in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel criticized Thursday’s story about the massacre in the holy city of Axum in Ethiopia in a series of Twitter posts on Friday.
“The relevant Ethiopian institutions have long since cleared the absolute fallacy of history,” he said. Neighboring Ethiopia has repeatedly denied the presence of Eritrean soldiers in the Tigray region, which has been largely isolated from the world since fighting began in November between Ethiopian and Allied forces and those from Tigray.
Gebremeskel did not respond to questions from the PA throughout the months of Tigray conflict,
The Eritrean government has not confirmed the presence of allegedly thousands of its soldiers in Tigray.
Witnesses from various communities in Tigray accused them of widespread looting, murder and sexual assault. The Tigray region borders Eritrea, and witnesses reported seeing loot trucks passing on their way into the country.
Thursday’s story quoted witnesses who said Eritrean soldiers attacked and killed civilians in the streets and churches of Axum and then prevented some people from burying the bodies. A church deacon said he believed about 800 people were killed in a single weekend in late November, and that thousands died in Axum.
Eritrea, one of the world’s most secret nations, has long been the enemy of the now fugitive ex-leaders from the Tigray region, who dominated the government of Ethiopia for nearly three decades. During that time, Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a two-decade border war.
That conflict ended in 2018 when new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made peace with Eritrea, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Now, some critics of the Tigray conflict accuse Abiy of collaborating with the former president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, to reach the region.
No one knows how many thousands of civilians were killed.
The Ethiopian Red Cross warned this month that without better humanitarian access to a region where 80% of the population of 6 million is still inaccessible, thousands of people may die of hunger after a month.