Twenty-four hours after joyous faith-based festivities, mass burial services took place in the small Ethiopian community of Arerti for the thirty-six people fatally injured when temporary framework within an Orthodox Christian church buckled.
Hundreds mourners processed with caskets covered in vibrant fabric into the grounds of a nearby church while clerics performed funerary ceremonies in the wake of the disaster at St Mariam Church.
Among them was young adult a local resident, who stated that he had been bereaved of his mother in the disaster.
"It's difficult to be separated from your parent, extremely hard," he said.
Although the church is currently under construction, people had assembled in the building on midweek during the annual religious observance of St Mariam.
Eyewitness Account of Events
Firsthand observer a local man reported that a sizeable number of worshippers chose to climb onto the makeshift scaffolding to observe a newly painted mural on the ceiling of the building when disaster occurred.
"The staircase was completely made of wood, and there were many individuals moving upward at the moment. As the congregants were going, the framework collapsed, leading to the failure," Mr Gebreweld stated.
Additional eyewitnesses reported that pandemonium followed, as individuals scattered in fear or attempted to rescue the lives of those trapped under the debris.
Personal Tragedy
Mr Fikre stated that immediately after he heard of the disaster, he rushed to the church, and then to a health centre to look for his mother, but she was not at any location.
"A relative contacted me after that. And then I went to the medical center. She was present," he said.
She was among the 36 dead, with emergency services indicating that the fatalities could rise as some of the wounded, totaling approximately 200, were in serious state. Some of them have been transferred to Addis Ababa, about 70 km away, for medical care.
Official Reaction
The archbishop of the local diocese, Megabi Hadis Nekatibeb, characterized the disaster as "extremely tragic and heart-breaking".
Mr Fikre said existence would not be the same for him and his younger brother without their parent.
"She raised us by producing and marketing local beverage," he explained.
The authorities expressed its sympathies to the relatives of the victims, and said that "security must be emphasized" during every building undertakings.
Safety standards are poorly implemented in Ethiopia and building disasters are frequent.
