![Debretsion Gebremichael, lead of TPLF, attends funeral ceremony of Ethiopia's Army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen in Mekele, Tigray Region, Ethiopia on June 26, 2019. [Photo by Tiksa Negeri/ REUTERS]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/55757779_401.jpg?ssl=1)
Eyewitnesses quoted by the FBC said forces belonging to the TPLF refused to hand over the bodies, something that resonates with government assertion that the TPLF was collecting bodies of its own soldiers and civilians they had killed to make up a genocide case against the Ethiopian federal government.
They said, according to the state-affiliated television, that the group “killed innocent people including laborers, mothers, youths and other segments of the community in the public based on their ethnic identity in retaliation for the strong defensive combat the militia and armed people of the area conducted against the invaders months ago.”
The eyewitnesses who spoke on the condition of anonymity said 89 innocent people were killed by the group on September 10, 2021 in Kobo town plus 16 innocent others who were killed the following day marking Ethiopian new year.
They said the dead bodies were buried by the rebel group in mass grave in what the resident say appears to be a “ploy to substantiate their false claim that the Ethiopian federal forces have killed innocent civilians.”
