A medical official reported that at
least 10 people were killed and 14 were injured on Wednesday in the second day of airstrikes in
Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region.
Total number of deaths is 10. Injured 14. Place of attack it Dagim Amsal.#TigrayUnderAttack
— Kibrom Gebreselassie (@kibrom30) September 14, 2022
Since late 2020, Tigrayan forces
have been engaged in combat with the Ethiopian military and its allies. A truce
that had been in place earlier this year was broken last month when hostilities
erupted once more.
Five of the victims died en route to
Mekelle's Ayder Referral Hospital, said the hospital's CEO, Kibrom
Gebreselassie. The others died at the scene of the drone strike in the Midre
Genet neighbourhood, Kibrom said, citing the city's emergency coordinator.
Ethiopian military spokesperson
Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not
immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front
(TPLF), which governs Tigray, said on Sunday it was ready for a further truceand would accept an African Union-led peace process. Ethiopia's government has
not yet responded to the offer.
A surgeon at Ayder, Fasika
Amdeslasie, said most of Wednesday's victims were hit in a second strike after
people had gathered to assist victims of a first hit.
Kibrom claimed that due to supply
shortages brought on by the nearly two-year-long battle, the hospital was
having difficulty saving the injured.
"There is no oxygen for the
operation. I don't know what to do. Am I to lose every salvageable victim
because there is no oxygen or medicine?" he said.
On Tuesday, one person was wounded
when air strikes hit Mekelle University and Dimtsi Weyane TV, the station and a
hospital official said.
ERITREANS BACK?
In
an interview that was shown on Tigrayan television on Tuesday, TPLF leader
Tadesse Werede said that Eritrea's forces had taken the border town of Shiraro
as fighting flared out in various areas of Tigray and the neighboring Amhara
province.
Yemane
Gebremeskel, Eritrea's minister of information, Ethiopia's military
spokesperson Col. Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not
respond to requests for comment on latest events in Tigray.
Days
after the conflict began, Eritrean forces already entered the fray, though
their existence was initially denied by both governments for about five months.
Locals and rights organizations have accused the Eritrean military of
mistreatment, including mass civilian deaths, torture, gang rapes, and sexual
enslavement of residents.
These
charges were rejected by Eritrea.
Reporters
are not permitted in the area, and since federal forces left more than a year
ago, there are no phone connections, making it difficult to confirm reports.
William
Davison, senior analyst for Ethiopia at the International Crisis Group think
tank, praised recent diplomatic efforts by the African Union, the United
States, and others but noted that they were being undermined by actual events.
"If
we don't see progress on key points of contention soon, then we could see these
diplomatic efforts lose momentum," he said.
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