More than 50 people were killed in an airstrike on a school in Tigre, northern Ethiopia, on Tuesday, aid workers said. The college housed people displaced by the conflict between central government forces and rebels in the region.
The casualty count is even worse for the Tigre regional government’s foreign affairs office, which said 65 were killed in the attack.
The attack on the city of Adi Daero appears to be one of the deadliest in the nearly two-year conflict. The deadliest previous air strike took place in January this year, when 59 people were killed in a camp for displaced people in the northwestern city of Dedebit, according to the United Nations human rights office.
Survivors of Wednesday’s attack fled to the city of Shire, about 25 kilometers away. At least 70 people were injured, they said.
So far, the country’s government has not commented on the attack.
Fighting in Africa’s second most populous nation began in November 2020 and displaced millions of people, pushing sizable portions of the Tigray region into famine and leaving thousands of civilians dead. That month, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the country’s army to Tigre to oust the regional government, which had been contesting its authority for several months and which, according to the executive, had attacked military bases.
The parties had been in a truce for five months, but fighting resumed in late August, in a blow to hopes of peace talks between the central government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party that controls the breakaway region.
The dispute pits the Addis Ababa-based government, led by Abiy Ahmed for four years, and the TPLF insurgents – the group that led the coalition that ruled Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018, in a phase marked by authoritarianism and allegations of corruption.
On Wednesday, the Ethiopian government announced that it had accepted an invitation from the African Union (AU) to participate in peace talks with the rebels this weekend in South Africa, in what would be the first formal dialogue between the sides since the beginning. of war. Tigré, however, has not yet confirmed whether he will participate.
Olusegun Obasanjo, AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, will lead the negotiations with the support of former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, according to the invitation letter.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
