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At least four people, including two children, died this Friday, August 26, in the capital of the Tigray region, in northern Ethiopia, after an airstrike hit a kindergarten. The regional authorities accuse the National Government Army of the aggression that is facing local forces, in the midst of a bloody conflict since November 2020.
The deceased people lie on the ground, the wounded are transported urgently and the crying of some people is at times covered by the sound of ambulances. This is the panorama in Tigray, a region on the brink of a humanitarian disaster, which this Friday, August 26, was once again the target of a violent attack.
The images correspond to a bombing that hit a kindergarten in a residential area of Mekelle, capital of the region in northern Ethiopia.
“Of the 13 people who arrived at the hospital, four died immediately,” said Kibrom Gebrselasie, executive director of the Ayder Hospital, located in Mekele, and who explained that two of the fatalities are children.
Local authorities accuse the Ethiopian Army of this fact, since no other military aircraft is known to operate in Ethiopian airspace.
“Today’s ruthless and sadistic air assault has taken the lives of innocent children and adults in the most despicable way, with their bodies literally cut to pieces,” the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (PFLT) said in a statement. political party that has controlled the region for decades and whose forces have been facing the country’s Army since November 2020.
The government has not formally claimed responsibility. However, he would have suggested his participation after an online statement asked residents to stay away from military and training facilities, because he intended to “take measures to attack the military forces” of the rebels.
It is not clear if there were military installations near the attacked area, where a hotel and small businesses are also located.
Fighting resumes in Tigray
The bombing occurred just after the fighting between Ethiopian federal troops and Tigray forces, on the border of that region and Amhara, resumed in the early hours of Wednesday, August 24, after a five-month truce.
In March this year, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration and the TPLF announced a ceasefire after both sides fought to a bloody stalemate. The Government declared a humanitarian truce, which allowed the arrival of urgently needed food aid in the area.
But the two sides have accused each other of the de facto breach of the agreement.
The war broke out in Tigray in November 2020, after the government accused the TPLF of attacking a federal military base, for which it considered that they challenged its authority and ordered a response to the aggression; while the Tigrayans assured that the Abiy government has persecuted them.
The conflict spread to neighboring Afar and Amhara regions a year ago. The fighting has displaced millions of people, pushed much of the population in that part of the country into starvation conditions and left thousands of civilians dead.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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