A fresh grave covered in sticks beside the Setit river at Wad el Hilu, Sudan on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. Dozens of bodies have been found floating down the Setit River, known in Ethiopia as Tekeze River, in southwestern Sudan in the past week. (AP Photo/Mohaned Awad)

CAIRO—Sudan has summoned Ethiopia’s envoy to the country over an incident where bodies were found floating down the river separating the two nations, as civil war wages in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Sudan’s foreign ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement late Sept. 7 that it summoned Ambassador Petal Amero on Aug. 30 to inform him about the discovery of more than two dozen bodies. Ethiopian refuges in the region have said that those found in the Setit River—also known as the Tekeze—were Ethnic Tigrayans.

The river flows through some of the most troubled areas in the Tigray conflict. The bodies were found in the village of Wad al-Hulaywah by Ethiopian refugees, who fled their homes when the war started in November.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Dina Mufti, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Ethiopian government has accused rival Tigray forces of dumping the bodies for propaganda purposes.

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The Sudanese ministry said at least 29 bodies were found between July 26 and Aug. 8, but it did not give further information. Refugees in the area said last month that they found and buried around 50 bodies on the Sudanese side of the river.

More than 60,000 Tigrayans have fled to Sudan since the war in Tigray began. Thousands of them remain in makeshift camps a short walk from the river, the defactor border line between Sudan and Ethiopia. (AP)