The Drone Watched the Monastery for Three Hours. Then It Fired.

The sisters were preparing grain.

It was the morning of Wednesday, July 22, at the Arsema monastery complex in Ethiopia's South Wollo zone, near the town of Mekane Selam in the Amhara region. The rainy season was coming, and the community was laying up stores to last through it. Residents had gathered near the meal preparation buildings and the grain stores. Ordinary work, done at a place of prayer that has stood above the Abay gorge for generations.

By mid morning, two nuns were dead. One died where she fell. The other died on the road to the hospital.

A monk, Abba Woldemichael, told the Ethiopian outlet Borkena that an aircraft had circled overhead for three to four hours before the strike. Then it fired, and the munition came down on the compound near the women's quarters.

Whoever flew the drone watched the monastery for hours. Then fired anyway.