STRIKE KILLS 17 AS BIDEN SEEKS PEACE IN TIGRAY
On the same day that President Joe Biden spoke with his Ethiopian counterpart, Abiy Ahmed, about a possible window for peace in the long-running war in Tigray, at least 17 people were killed in an airstrike, aid workers said.
The strike Monday came days after dozens more were killed after a drone opened fire on a refugee camp in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray and highlighted the increasingly deadly role of armed drones, some supplied by U.S. allies, in a conflict that has badly destabilized Africa’s second most populous country.
Video from the aftermath of the strike Friday, provided by aid workers, showed the charred bodies of women and children laid out on blue plastic sheeting bearing the United Nations logo. On Monday the U.N. secretarygeneral, António Guterres, said he was “deeply concerned” about the attack, which occurred hours after the Ethiopian government issued a call for “national reconciliation.” At least 50 people had been killed, he said.
Prime Minister Abiy stoked hopes for a cease-fire Friday with the release of prominent political prisoners, including a founding member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, which Abiy’s government has been fighting since November 2020.
On Monday, in their first direct conversation as leaders, Biden called Abiy to urge him to “accelerate progress toward a negotiated cease-fire” and open up humanitarian access across the country, the White House said in a statement.
But hours later, news filtered through of a new attack.
Missiles slammed into a flour mill in Mai Tsebri, in the Tigray region, Monday afternoon, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens.
A mediator appointed by the African Union, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria, flew into the Tigrayan capital Mekelle on Tuesday morning, two Western diplomats said. Hours later, gunfire rang out across the city as Tigrayan anti-aircraft guns opened fire, apparently in reaction to drones circling overhead, an aid official in the city said.