At least seven people were killed in an air strike in the Tigray region’s capital on Friday, according to local medical officials. This was the first such attack since a four-month-old truce was broken this week.
According to the authorities, three children were among the deceased, but a representative for the federal administration denied any civilian casualties.
Two days after the truce was broken by fighting between the national government and Tigrayan forces on the border of the Tigray and Amhara provinces, an airstrike on Mekelle was conducted.
The regional authorities’ owned and operated Tigrai Television attributed the strike to the federal government. In Ethiopian airspace, no additional military aircraft are in use.
Following that, the Ethiopian government warned Tigrayans to avoid military installations, stating that it would “take actions to target the armed troops.”
Ayder Hospital’s CEO, Kibrom Gebreselassie, announced on Twitter that the facility had received four fatalities, including two children, and nine injuries.
He said that a playground had been affected by the strike. Reuters was unable to independently confirm his claims. It was unclear if any military installations were close by.
Legesse Tulu, a spokesman for the federal administration, claimed that reports of civilian casualties were “lies and contrived drama” and charged Tigrayan authorities with “dropping corpse bags.”
He claimed that government attacks solely targeted military installations and denied hitting civilian targets.
Tigrai TV footage depicted a structure with the roof blasted off, exposing a twisted jumble of slides and emergency personnel dragging a stretcher from behind a broken pink wall bearing the image of a huge butterfly.
A woman and her child, as well as an additional unidentified individual, have been added to the death toll, bringing it to seven, according to asika Amdeslasie, a surgeon at Ayder Hospital.
He claimed that among the remains transported to Ayder were a young teen, two ladies, and a boy about 10.He told Reuters that “their bodies were torn apart.” “I have personally seen their corpses.”
According to the surgeon, Tigray’s limits on medical supplies meant the hospital ran low on essential supplies, such as intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and pain killers.
Requests for comments on the shortages were not immediately answered by Lia Tadesse, the Ethiopian minister of health.
An explosion and anti-aircraft firing were heard in Mekelle on Friday, according to a source in the humanitarian sector.
Investigators reported that civilians had been killed in government airstrikes in the past. According to witnesses, a drone strike in January killed 56 people and injured 30, including children, at a camp for displaced people in Dedebit. Requests for a reaction from the government were not answered.
In Tigray, war broke out in November 2020 and has recently extended to the neighboring nations of Afar and Amhara. Tigrayan forces marched into Addis Ababa in November but were repelled by a government offensive.
After fighting reached a standstill in March, the government proclaimed a humanitarian ceasefire, allowing much-needed food supply into the area. Both held each other responsible for the fighting that broke out this week.
