#UpdateOnSaturday
According
to the director of a local hospital, an air attack on Friday in the capital of
Ethiopia's northern Tigray province claimed at least seven lives, two of them are
children.
The
strike in Mekelle, capital city of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, began about 09:40
GMT(06:40 pm local time), according to Tigrai Television, which is under the jurisdiction of the
local authorities, and the federal government was to blame. There are no other
known military aircraft flying in Ethiopian airspace.
Following
that, the Ethiopian government warned Tigrayans to avoid military and training
sites, announcing in an online statement that it will "take actions to
target the armed forces."
Legesse
Tulu, a spokesman for the federal government, and Colonel Getnet Adane, a
spokesman for the military, both declined to comment on the air strike, which
occurred days after war erupted on the border between the Tigray and Amhara
provinces between the national government and Tigray troops.
The
strike, according to Kibrom Gebreselassie, CEO of Ayder Hospital, also affected
a playground for kids. It wasn't readily obvious if there were any neighboring
military installations.
Kibrom
displayed images of the wounded and dead. Tigrai Television showed images of
damaged buildings and what appeared to be wounded people lying on the ground
being attended by medical personnel.
A
humanitariansource in the city confirmed hearing an explosion and anti-aircraft
gunfire.
Kibrom
said on Twitter that the hospital had received four dead from the strike, two
of them children, and nine others were admitted with wounds.
A
four-month-old ceasefire between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's administration and
the party in charge of Tigray, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), was
broken, and both sides have placed the blame on the other.
In
Tigray, war broke out in November 2020, and has recently extended to the
neighboring nations of Afar and Amhara. Tigrayan forces marched near Addis
Abeba in November of last year, but a government offensive that month forced
them back.
After
a deadly standoff between the two sides, a ceasefire was struck in March. The
government also declared a humanitarian truce, enabling much-needed food supply
into the area.
Millions
of people have been uprooted by the war, sections of Tigray are now in famine
conditions, and thousands of civilians have died as a result.
The
vast majority of residents of Tigray have had no access to telephone, internet and
banking services for more than a year.
The
region is completely on siege.
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