Air strike in Ethiopia’s Tigray region kills at least 5 people, doctor says

By: REUTERS

At least five people were killed and 37 were wounded during an air strike in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region on Friday, medics said.

The drone attack hit the town of Dengolat, 30 kilometres from Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, Kibrom Gebreselassie, director of the hospital that received the victims, said on Twitter.

“We have received 42 victims; five of them have died,” he added.

At least 50 people were killed on Tuesday in an air strike that hit a school in Tigray that was sheltering people displaced by the conflict, aid workers and Tigrayan forces said.

Last month, 10 people were killed in twin drone attacks on a residential neighbourhood in Mekelle.

The region has been the target of several air strikes since fighting resumed in late August between the Ethiopian government and allied forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

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

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