In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Interim Tigray Regional State Government Communication says “Our compatriots who were looking after cattle in Raya Azebo district were massacred,”  and expressed condolences to the families. The number of victims and how the incident unfolded is unspecified.

The Tigray regional government claimed that the perpetrators of the attack came from the Afar region and that it is working to establish their identity.  It also said that the effort to capture the perpetrators will continue. “We will update our people about our findings,” it said.

The statement also called on the Afar regional state and the Federal government to search and arrest the “criminals” and ensure they face justice in the area where they committed the “crime.”

Ethnic Tigray news sources reported that the attack in Raya Azebo started on Monday evening and had been going on until Wednesday. The sources link the incident to “Afar gunmen” and “seven innocent civilians” have been killed horrifyingly,  it said. Currently, normalcy is restored to the area. The source even made claims that Afar region special forces were involved in the

The Afar regional government and the Federal Police have not confirmed the incident or remarked on the claim from the Tigray regional government.

Afar is one of the regions that was severely impacted by the two-year war between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Abiy Ahmed’s Federal government.