Air raid in Tigray, Ethiopia kills 10 people, including children

Marketplace in northern Ethiopia Marketplace in northern Ethiopia Lesly Derksen on Unsplash

28 October 2021

A military jet from the Ethiopian government bombed a factory in Mekelle, capital city of the Tigray region, killing 10 people

An attack, part of a bombing campaign directed by the national government, targeted a factory used by the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the former governing party in the region. According to rebel sources and doctors who attended the emergency there were ten fatalities as well as more than 20 injured, including civilians and children. In recent weeks, Tigray was hit by almost daily aerial bombings as the military stepped up its use of air power in the nearly one-year-long war against the TPLF. Just on the 18th of October, a previous air raid killed three children, and wounded several more people.

Government officers declared that the targets bombed in northern and western Tigray were military facilities aiding the TPLF, and that they contributed to prolonging the civil conflict in Ethiopia. This conflict started in November 2020 after the TPLF allegedly committed acts of treason against the Ethiopian National Defence Force to which Ahmed Ali, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, responded by sending troops to topple the Liberation Front. The situation escalated and, on 1 May 2021, the federal government of Ethiopia formally approved a parliamentary resolution designating the TPLF as a terrorist organization.

Amongst the consequences of the conflict are thousands of deaths, and hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees. Nowadays, the TPLF controls most of Tigray and it is expanding to two adjacent regions: Afar and Amhara, where fighting has also intensified. The recent bombings by the government have sparked international discontent and disrupted access by the United Nations (UN) and journalists to the region, where an estimated 400,000 people face famine conditions under a de facto humanitarian aid blockade.

 

To read more, please visit:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/28/ethiopia-air-strike-on-tigray-kills-several

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ethiopia-air-strike-hits-tigray-tplf-says-3-civilians-killed-govt-says-factory-2021-10-28/

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211028-ethiopia-air-strike-on-tigray-kills-6-hospital-rebel-sources

 

Author: Dulce María Hernández Máquez; Editor: Maxime Grenier

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