Twenty-three South Sudanese refugees have been charged in an Ethiopian court for allegedly carrying out a gruesome murder of 10 Ethiopian civilians.

They were accused of using sticks and shovels to kill the Ethiopians at a refugee camp in the western part of the country last April.

The 23 South Sudanese refugees were accused of planning the attacks in retaliation for a car accident in which two refugee children were killed inside Jewi Refugee Camp in Ethiopia’s Gambella region.

“The perpetrators planned to attack in advance, in retaliation for the tragic car accident,” said the charge sheet read out by prosecutors in Ethiopia’s high court late on Monday.

“On April 21, they used sticks and shovels to carry out gruesome killings. The 10 victims were all innocent Ethiopian civilians who were only employed as construction workers at the site,” it said, adding that some suspects were on the run.

According to the Ethiopian media, the killings took place at the same camp, and sparked unrest in the town, where some South Sudanese have been the victims of attacks by Ethiopians.

A charge sheet read out by prosecutors in Ethiopia’s high court late on Monday stated that the perpetrators planned to attack in advance, in retaliation for the tragic car accident. The dead included two women.

The trial is expected to resume on 13 October.

Ethiopia’s Gambella region, hosts over 270,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled violence in South Sudan.