10 killed in twin air strikes on Ethiopia's Tigray: hospital

10 killed in twin air strikes on Ethiopia's Tigray: hospital

Ethiopia
Map of Ethiopia locating Tigray region.. Photo: Aude GENET / AFP
Source: AFP

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find “Recommended for you” block and enjoy!

Ten people were killed in a second day of air strikes on Ethiopia's Tigray region Wednesday, hospital officials said, in attacks that came after authorities there expressed readiness for a ceasefire.

Twin drone attacks hit a neighbourhood in Tigray's capital Mekele at around 7:30 am (0430 GMT), killing 10 and injuring more than a dozen others, two officials from the biggest hospital in the war-torn region said.

The air raids follow an announcement by Tigrayan authorities on Sunday that they were ready for talks led by the African Union (AU) to end almost two years of brutal warfare in northern Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government is still yet to officially comment on the overture, as the international community presses the warring sides to seize the opportunity for peace.

Read also

Nearly 50 Armenian soldiers killed in fierce clashes with Azerbaijan

"Death toll raised to 10," Kibrom Gebreselassie, a senior official at Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekele, told AFP via text message. In a later statement, he said 14 people were injured.

Fasika Amdeslasie, a surgeon at the same hospital, confirmed the death toll, adding that the first bombing injured two women followed by a second strike "on the people gathered to help and see the victims".

PAY ATTENTION: Follow us on Instagram - get the most important news directly in your favourite app!

"Among the victims, a father was dead and his son is taken to surgery", he said on Twitter.

AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year.

Renewed combat

The reported attack followed another drone strike on Tuesday on Mekele University, which Tigrayan authorities said caused injuries and property damage.

Read also

Air strike on Ethiopia's Tigray: rebels, hospital

Dimtsi Weyane, a TV network run by Tigrayan authorities, said its station was also hit on Tuesday, forcing it off air and "causing heavy human and material damage".

"The regime in #Addis continues to defy any possibility for peaceful solution through show of force & air raids," Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), said on Twitter following Wednesday's attacks.

Abiy's government has not commented on this week's reported bombings, and AFP requests to officials were not answered.

Tigray has been bombed several times since fighting resumed in late August between government forces and their allies, and rebels led by the TPLF, which ruled Ethiopia for decades before Abiy took office in 2018.

The return to combat shattered a March truce and dashed hopes of peacefully resolving the war, which has killed untold numbers of civilians and triggered a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia.

Both sides have accused the other of firing first, and fighting has spread from around southern Tigray to other fronts farther north and west, while also drawing in Eritrean troops who backed Ethiopian forces during the early phase of the war.

Read also

Burkina junta chief sacks defence minister as jihadist violence rages

TPLF military boss Tadesse Worede on Tuesday said "Eritrean forces are in Sheraro", a town in northwestern Tigray, where the rebels said they were resisting a major offensive by Ethiopia and Eritrean troops launched earlier this month.

Diplomatic push

Frantic diplomatic efforts are under way to end the war, with the new US envoy to the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, extending his visit to Ethiopia this month.

The offer by Tigrayan authorities to participate in AU-led talks removed an obstacle to negotiations with Abiy's government, which had insisted the pan-Africa bloc based in Addis Ababa mediate any potential talks.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat, the East African bloc IGAD, and the European Union welcomed the offer by "the regional government of Tigray".

Abiy's government has declared the TPLF a terrorist group, and considers its claim to authority in Tigray illegitimate.

The UN human rights office has documented hundreds of civilian deaths from air strikes and drone attacks including on refugee camps, a hotel and a market.

Read also

Ethiopia rivals urged to seize moment for peace

It has warned that disproportionate attacks against non-military targets could amount to war crimes.

The government has accused the TPLF of staging civilian deaths from air strikes to manufacture outrage, and insists it only targets military sites.

Abiy, a Nobel Peace laureate, sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF in response to what he said were attacks on federal army camps.

But the TPLF recaptured most of Tigray in a surprise comeback in June 2021.

It then expanded into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara before the fighting reached a stalemate.

New feature: Check out news exactly for YOU ➡️ find "Recommended for you" block and enjoy!

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.