Devastated relatives of some victims interviewed by Radio Assenna in the last couple of days disclosed that 39 Eritrean Christians were beheaded by ISIS in Libya, back on 24^th August, 2015.

According to the information, the 38 young Eritreans were executed barbarically after defying ISIS’s demand to convert into Islam, while one was shot dead following his attempt to escape the massacre.

The relatives of the victims gave the interview based on information they have received from an underage eyewitness who escaped death by conceding to the ISIS’s demand to convert.

“The underage eyewitness was made to look at the beheading standing 20 meters away the murder scene” the interviewees said.

Some of the identified victims are from a small town, Shambiko, located in South Western Eritrea (Gash Barka Region).

The group of victims is part of 78 Eritreans that include women.

They had been kidnapped by ISIS on their way to the Mediterranean crossing hopping to reach Europe via Italy.

In April 2015, ISIS depicted the executions of Eritreans and Ethiopians in two separate videos, where one group of captives was beheaded, while the other was shot to death.

Although the number of the victims was widely reported as 28, eyewitnesses later told Radio Assenna it was more than 50. The act of terror sparked outrage in Ethiopia, with tens of thousands of people marching in the streets of Addis Ababa; but the regime in Eritrea tried to disguise the massacre from the Eritrean people, while most of the victims were Eritreans.

The regime which is the root cause of the Eritrean exodus, initially tried to hide even the Lampedusa tragedy where more than 350 Eritreans drowned in one go, maintaining its habit of disguising such catastrophes to protect its image at the expense of the Eritrean people’s tragedies. Some western European countries, including Britain are also showing signs of propping up the dictatorial regime that has no regard of its own people.