Ethiopia under attack: Tigray conflict gets vicious
At least 10 people were killed on the second day of airstrikes on Mekelle, capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, a hospital official said, in attacks that came after local authorities expressed their willingness to call for a ceasefire.
Two drone strikes hit a residential area, killing 10 people and injuring others, Kibrom Gebreselassie, CEO of Ayder Referral Hospital, said on Wednesday.
Five of the victims died on the way to the hospital, Kibrom said, citing the city’s emergency coordinator, while the others died at the scene of the drone attack in the Midre Genet neighborhood.
A doctor in Tigray says:
“Hospital lacks oxygen, medicines for wounded”#TigrayUnderAttack
— Mustafa Bağ (@mustafa__bag) September 14, 2022
Fasika Amdeslasie, a surgeon at the same hospital, said the first bombing injured two women, followed by a second “drone attack on people who had gathered to help and see the victims”.
“Among the victims, a father died and his son is operated on,” he said on Twitter. Kibrom told Reuters on Tuesday that a witness arrived at the facility after an airstrike injured one person.
Early morning, @AbiyAhmedAli ‘s drone dropped bombs in a residential neighborhood at #Mekelle. Civilians r killed, injured & rescue efforts under way. The regime in #Addis continues to defy any possibility for peaceful solution through show of force & air raids #Tigrayunderattack
— Kindeya Gebrehiwot, PhD, Prof (@ProfKindeya) September 14, 2022
There was no immediate comment on this week’s bombings by the Ethiopian federal government, which has been battling the Tigray regional government since November 2020. Kibrom said the hospital was struggling to rescue the injured due to supply shortages caused by nearly two years of war.
“There is no oxygen for the operation. I do not know what to do. Do I lose a viable sacrifice because there is no oxygen or medicine? “, he declared.
The reported attack follows a drone strike on Mekelle University on Tuesday that caused injuries and property damage, according to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governs Tigray.
Getachew Reda, the spokesperson for the TPLF, said on Twitter on Tuesday that the business campus had been hit by drones. He accused the Ethiopian government of being behind the airstrike.
