Air strikes in Ethiopia’s Tigray region kill 10 people, hospital officials say

Nairobi — A second day of air strikes on the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region on Wednesday killed 10 people, hospital officials said, while local forces accused troops from neighbouring Eritrea of again joining the war against them.

Ethiopia’s government, which has been fighting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) since late 2020, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the air strikes, fighting, or the presence of Eritrean troops.

Wednesday’s reported drone strikes in Mekelle came after a TPLF ceasefire offer at the weekend. Among the casualties were a father killed in the second strike and his son, a doctor, who was wounded when tending victims, said Fasika Amdeslasie, a surgeon at Mekelle’s Ayder Referral Hospital. About 13 people were wounded.

Five of the victims died en route to the hospital, said Ayder’s CEO Kibrom Gebreselassie. Another five died at the scene in an area called Dagim Amsal, he said, citing the city’s emergency co-ordinator.

Kibrom said the hospital was struggling to save the wounded because of supply shortages in a region largely cut off from aid. “I don’t know what to do. Am I to lose every salvageable victim because there is no oxygen or medicine?”

The conflict has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions, destroyed hundreds of schools and clinics, and caused starvation in the already impoverished region of Tigray.

Return of Eritrea?

With fighting flaring in several parts of Tigray and neighbouring Amhara region, TPLF commander-in-chief Tadesse Werede said in an interview broadcast on Tigrayan television on Tuesday that Eritrea’s military had taken the town of Shiraro near the border.

Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea’s minister of information, did not respond to requests for comment. Ethiopia’s military spokesperson Col Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu also didn’t respond to requests for comment on the latest events in Tigray.

Eritrean troops previously joined the war days after it erupted, though both governments denied their presence for about five months. Residents and rights groups accused the Eritrean troops of abuses including gang rape and sexual enslavement of civilians, mass civilian killings and torture.

Eritrea denies those accusations.

Verifying claims is difficult as reporters aren’t allowed into the region and it has had no phone connections since federal troops withdrew more than a year ago.

William Davison, senior analyst for Ethiopia at the International Crisis Group think-tank, said recent diplomatic activity by the AU, US and other groups was encouraging, but events on the ground were undermining them.

“If we don’t see progress on key points of contention soon, then we could see these diplomatic efforts lose momentum,” Davison.

Wednesday’s reported strikes came after two people were wounded on Tuesday in attacks on Mekelle University and a local TV station, a hospital official said.

Reuters