NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Eritrean government rejects The Associated Press story as “outrageous lies” in which witnesses describe a massacre of several hundred people committed by Eritrean soldiers in the Tigray region, Ethiopia.
Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel on Thursday criticized Thursday’s story about the massacre in Ethiopia’s holy city, Axum, in a series of Twitter posts.
“Relevant Ethiopian institutions had long held the absolute fallacy of history,” he said. Neighboring Ethiopia has repeatedly denied the presence of Eritrean soldiers in its Tigray region, which has been largely separated from the world since fighting began in November between Ethiopian and Allied forces and those of Tigray.
Gebremeskel has not answered AP questions throughout the Tigray conflict for months,
According to reports, the Eritrean government has not confirmed the presence of thousands of soldiers in Tigray.
Witnesses from various Tigray communities have accused them of widespread looting, killings and sexual assaults. The Tigray region borders Eritrea, and witnesses have described seeing loot trucks passing by on their way to the country.
Thursday’s story cited witnesses 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 believes about 800 people died in a single weekend in late November and that thousands in Axum have died in total.
Eritrea, one of the most secretive nations in the world, has long been an enemy of the already fugitive ex-leaders of the Tigray region, who dominated the Ethiopian government for nearly three decades. During this time, Ethiopia and Eritrea waged a two-decade border war.
That conflict ended in 2018 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed entered into 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 president. longtime Eritrean Eritrea Isaias Afwerki to head to the region.
No one knows how many thousands of civilians have been killed.
The Ethiopian Red Cross warned this month that without better humanitarian access to a region where 80% of the 6 million population has not yet been reached, thousands of people could starve to death after a month.