Orthodox priest releases video statement on suppression of Tigray district
Ethiopian government forces and their allies are committing genocide in the country’s war-torn northern province of Tigray, the head of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church has claimed in a videoed statement demanding urgent international intervention.
The appeal by Abuna [Patriarch] Mathias follows fresh allegations of ethnic cleansing, gang rapes, extrajudicial killings and other atrocities by soldiers loyal to Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, who ordered an invasion of Tigray last November.
Tigrayan opposition sources meanwhile reported on Saturday that hundreds of civilians in the town of Hawzen, and the surrounding district of the same name, were under bombardment by heavy weapons.
