Debre Medehanit Eyesus Azeba Church is located in Tabia Subdey, Lalai Adyabo Wereda. The church stands as a living witness to more than 1,600 years of faith and history. Long before it became a Christian church, this sacred site was a place of Torah sacrifice, a history still conserved through a preserved white stone believed to symbolize an ancient altar. It was built in the 4th century AD by Abune Moses Zemaye Gerezo, with the support of Kings Abraha and Atsbeha. And Debre Medehanit Eyesus Azeba is one of the 49 historic churches made by Abune Moses across Tigray and beyond.
During the war in Tigray (2020-2022), this treasured heritage site suffered devastating destruction. Sacred drums, flutes, incense holders, holy books, icons, and ritual decorations were burned and damaged. The destruction of Debre MedehanitEyesus Azeba Church is more than the loss of physical structures and artifacts. It is a deep wound to the spiritual life, cultural memory, and heritage of the local people.
As with many religious sites across the region, the damage inflicted on this ancient church features the broader impact of the genocidal war on cultural and religious heritage, underscoring the urgent need for protection, documentation, and restoration of irreplaceable historical sites.
For more details on this case, see pages 145–146 of The Systematic Undoing of Society: War Damage and Loss in the Social Sector of Tigray.
The destruction and loss of the Debre Medehanit Eyesus Azeba Church, Adyabo. These images of the church, drums, flutes, stands (long sticks), incense, and grapevines, as well as the Book of Acts and the Holy icons, have been burned and destroyed. Source, CITG and TOTC 2022
GPS Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/5Yrcer9mdJp83Hh18
I am a living witness to this genocidal witness.
In 2020, while I was traveling from Mekelee to Abiy Adi, I witnessed one of the most horrific incident. In a place called Sele, around 6 or seven men were carrying a woman who was in labor to a health care center. Sadly, Eritrean soldiers patrolling the road barred them despite everyone begging as the mother in delivery has been in pain and bleeding for days.
They have to see her die in labor in the roadside, because those soldiers showed no sympathy to let laboring mother pass.
Eritrean soldiers threatened to kill me twice one at the entrance to Abiy Adi and second at a place called Siero, and Ethiopian soldiers pointed gun on me at Agulae, also republican guards came to my house kept me in house arrest for one day searching my hime to find any reason for execution, but the Sele incident never fades in my eyes.