I reported on January 12th that claims of a massacre involving hundreds of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians at a major church in Tigray by Eritrea soldiers happened, but it was yet to be confirmed. Now that massacre has been confirmed and as the Christian Post and UK Telegraph report, 750 Christians were butchered at St. Mary of Zion Church in Tigray. Likewise, it was not limited to just Christians, as reports also say that mosques and Moslems were also attacked.
Around 750 people were killed in an attack on an Orthodox church, which is said to contain the Ark of the Covenant described in the Book of Exodus in the Bible, in northern Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region — home to thousands of churches and monasteries — according to reports.
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The government and the Eritreans want to wipe out the Tigrayan culture. They think they’re better than rest of the people in the country. The looting is about destroying and removing the cultural presence of Tigray,” Gervers explained.
Former BBC World Service Africa editor and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Martin Plaut, said that those who escaped the Aksum massacre had reported that the attack began after Ethiopian federal troops and Amhara militia approached the church, the U.K.’s Church Times reported.
“People were worried about the safety of the Ark, and when they heard troops were approaching feared they had come to steal it. All those inside the cathedral were forced out into the square,” Plaut was quoted as saying.
About 1,000 people were believed to be in the church complex at the time of the attack. The EEPA said the massacre was carried out by Ethiopian federal troops and allied Amhara militia that are fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. (source)
So far, the world has seldom paid attention to this massacre, or of the effects it may have, as millions have also been displaces. If history is a guide, then another potentially serious refugee crisis is in the works right now, since during the last migration crisis, many people came from Eritrea, which is near to this area, fleeing the violence in it for safer and more economically stable grounds in Europe.
One cannot say what the future will hold. What we can say is that another major political and humanitarian crisis is happening right now, and the direct effects of the crisis could spread around the world if it is not carefully managed, but considering how the refugee crisis, as I have pointed out, seems desired for political reasons, it may just be that the crisis is wanted, without care for the people affected, so long as it can be exploited to further a greater overall cause long-term.