ADDIS ABABA: Four people were killed Friday in an Ethiopian air strike on Tigray's capital city, a hospital official said, as the government denied it had targeted civilians in the rebel-held region.
The strike on Mekele, the first in many months, came just days after ground fighting resumed between government forces and rebels, ending a five-month truce and dashing hopes of peace talks.
Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief clinical director at Mekele’s Ayder Referral Hospital, told AFP in a text message: “Four are dead by the time they arrive (at) the hospital. Two of the dead are children.”
Nine others were receiving treatment for injuries, he said.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which recaptured Tigray from government forces in June 2021, said a residential area and a kindergarten were hit.
“Civilians are dead and injured” and a rescue operation was under way, Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a TPLF spokesman, told AFP in a message.
Two humanitarian sources in Ethiopia told AFP they had been notified of an air strike in Mekele, but provided no details about targets or casualties.
- 'Only military sites' -
The government denied the allegations, saying the air force had only targeted military sites, and accused the TPLF of staging civilian deaths.
“The Ethiopian Air Force is clearly reversing the attack launched against Ethiopia by targeting only military sites,“ the Government Communication Service said in a message to AFP.
“However, the terrorist TPLF has begun dumping fake body bags in civilian areas in order to claim that the Air Force attacked civilians.”
Shortly after reports of the strike emerged, the government announced it would “take action” against TPLF sites and warned civilians to stay away from military targets in the northern region.
In January, the UN said at least 108 civilians had been killed since the year began in a series of airstrikes in Tigray, including on a refugee camp and a flour mill.
The UN human rights office warned at the time that disproportionate attacks against non-military targets could amount to war crimes.
A truce in March paused the worst of the bloodshed and allowed aid convoys to return slowly to Tigray, where the UN says millions are severely hungry, and fuel and medicine are in short supply.
But on Wednesday, the warring sides announced a return to the battlefield, with each accusing the other of firing first as fresh offensives erupted along Tigray's southern border.
Details remain unclear, but it appears the fighting has not spread outside an area bordering Tigray, Amhara and Afar.
- International alarm -
The return to combat has alarmed the international community, which has been pushing both sides to peacefully resolve the brutal 21-month war in Africa's second most populous nation.
Since the end of June, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and the rebels have repeatedly stated their willingness to enter peace negotiations, but disagreed on the terms of such talks.
In recent weeks, too, they have accused each other of preparing for a return to battle.
Addis Ababa wants talks without preconditions under the auspices of the African Union, which is headquartered in the Ethiopian capital.
The rebels are demanding that electricity, telecommunications and banking services be restored to Tigray before talks begin, and reject the AU's envoy Olusegun Obasanjo as mediator, accusing him of a pro-government bias.
The conflict has killed untold numbers of people, with widespread reports of atrocities including mass killings and sexual violence.
Tigray is also in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, with nearly half its population of six million facing severe hunger, the World Food Programme said last week.
Abiy sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF, accusing the region's former ruling party of orchestrating attacks on federal army camps.
The confrontation followed months of rising tensions between Addis Ababa and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for three decades until Abiy took office in 2018.-AFP
