Desk Report
Published: 24 Oct 2021, 06:45 pm
Ethiopia Launches Air Strike on Tigray's 'Western Front' || Photo: Collected
Ethiopia's military launched
an airstrike on a rebel-held facility in Tigray's west on Sunday, a government
official said, the seventh aerial bombardment in the war-hit region in a week, reports AFP.
"Today the western front
of (Mai Tsebri) which was serving as a training and military command post for
the terrorist group TPLF has been the target of an air strike," government
spokeswoman Selamawit Kassa said, referring to the Tigray People's Liberation
Front (TPLF).
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's
government has been locked in a war against the TPLF since last November,
though Tigray itself had seen little combat since late June when the rebels
seized control of much of Ethiopia's northernmost region and the military
largely withdrew.
But on Monday Ethiopia's air
force launched two strikes on Tigray's capital Mekele that the UN said killed
three children and wounded several other people.
Since then there have been three
more strikes on Mekele and another targeting what the government described as a
weapons cache in the town of Agbe, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the west.
The strikes coincide with
ramped-up fighting in Amhara region, south of Tigray.
They have drawn rebukes from
Western powers, with the US last week condemning "the continuing
escalation of violence, putting civilians in harm's way".
A strike Friday on Mekele
forced a UN flight carrying 11 humanitarian personnel to turn back to the Ethiopian
capital Addis Ababa, and the UN subsequently announced it was suspending its
twice-weekly flights to the region.
The conflict has spurred
fears of widespread starvation, as the UN estimates it has pushed 400,000
people in Tigray into famine-like conditions.