Ethiopia's army spokesman said Thursday that
the military carried out the attack on Togoga, but said rebel fighters were the
target.
At least 64 people were killed and 180 were
injured in an air strike on a market in Ethiopia's war-torn northern Tigray
region, a local health officer said Thursday, as the army denied targeting
civilians.
Details of the bloody attack on Togoga town,
30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the regional capital Mekele, on Tuesday
were slow to emerge partly because soldiers initially blocked emergency workers
from accessing the area.
By Thursday, hospitals in Mekele were treating
at least 73 people, including young children.
Victims at the hospital suffered shrapnel
wounds and burns, and in some cases doctors were forced to perform amputations
to save lives.
The Ethiopian military admitted carrying out
the attack but said it targeted rebel fighters, not civilians.
The health officer told AFP at least 64 people
had died.
"The air strike was in the market area,
so many, many people were injured," said Mulu Atsbaha, an advisor to the
Tigray regional administration on maternal and child health.
He said the toll had been collated from
residents of Togoga and "confirmed with local leaders".
Survivors spoke of huge devastation as aerial
explosions tore through the busy market around 1 pm, killing and injuring
dozens, reducing nearby homes to rubble and burying people under the ruins.
But Ethiopia's military spokesman said rebel
fighters dressed in civilian clothes, gathered in Togoga to celebrate
"Martyr Day", were attacked.
"We do not accept that this operation
targeted civilians," Colonel Getnet Adane told AFP.
"It is a clear fact that both the
remnants of the TPLF and its militia dress in civilian clothes," he said,
referring to the renegade former regional leadership.
Genet also denied the army targeted a market,
adding that while it was market day on Tuesday, "in Ethiopia, people go to
the markets in the morning, and by the afternoon they are usually
deserted."
The attack came as vote counting was under way
following Monday's national elections in Ethiopia.
No vote was held in Tigray because of the
conflict, and the region has seen an upsurge in fighting and rebel advances in
recent days.
They included the brief occupation of the key
town of Adigrat in the far north, and Wukro, further south nearer Mekele,
residents told AFP, while heavy shelling was reported to the north of the
regional capital on Thursday morning.
Flights in and out of Mekele were disrupted
for a second day Thursday.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to
Tigray in November to oust the dissident regional leadership, promising a swift
victory.
But nearly eight months later, fighting
continues, which has triggered a humanitarian crisis with the UN warning
350,000 people are on the brink of famine.
The strike has provoked international outrage,
with the United States calling it a "reprehensible act".
The European Union said the blocking of
ambulances from reaching the scene would be a grave violation of international
law, while the United Nations called for an urgent investigation into the
strike.
Ethiopia's foreign ministry spokesman Dina
Mufti rejected the criticism, accusing the rebels of using human shields to
draw attacks.
"The Ethiopian government does not target
civilians. It is only moving to pick up people wanted by the law," he told
reporters on Thursday.
Dina complained that international attention
was focused on Tuesday's deadly attack, rather than Monday's polls, saying
foreign powers "didn't care to give statements on this historical
election".
BY Agence France-Presse
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