Fighting increased last week in the Tigray region, spurring reports of a bloody massacre at a church in the Ethiopian city of Aksum that killed over 700 people. In the city of Aksum, a special church known as the Church of St. Mary of Zion is where the ark is said to have rested for hundreds of years. So this is a very special and sacred place for Ethiopian Christians." Tragedy struck last week as Ethiopian Christians gathered in Aksum to celebrate one of the most important holidays in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, the annual festival of Timkat. "We estimate that 2.3 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Tigray including 1.3 million children," Dujarric said.

Source: Ethiopian News January 25, 2021 16:38 UTC