3 aid workers found killed in Tigray region

MEKELE, Ethiopia — Three aid workers employed by Doctors Without Borders were found dead in the conflicthit Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, in what the aid group called a “brutal murder.”

In a statement, Doctors Without Borders said that the bodies of the workers — a Spanish woman and two Ethiopian men — were found near their vehicle Friday morning, less than a day after they went missing.

“We condemn this attack on our colleagues in the strongest possible terms and will be relentless in understanding what happened,” the statement said.

The slain aid workers — identified as Maria Hernandez, 35; Yohannes Halefom Reda, 31; and Tedros Gebremariam Gebremichael, 31 — were traveling Thursday when their colleagues lost touch with them, Doctors Without Borders said.

The agency denounced the “brutal murder” but did not provide further details on the circumstances or who might have carried out the attack.

The Tigray war started in November after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia began a military offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the regional ruling party that had defied his authority. Within days, soldiers from Eritrea and ethnic Amhara militias had entered Tigray to join the offensive on the government side.

The war has become notorious for atrocities against civilians and for a growing famine that has already affected 350,000 people. The U.S. estimates that as many as 900,000 people now face famine conditions.

The death of the aid workers comes after Ethiopia’s air force bombed a crowded market on Monday, killing dozens of civilians, according to Ethiopian health officials in Mekele, the capital of Tigray.

In March, Ethiopian soldiers dragged four men off a public bus on a road north of Mekele and executed them in front of a team from Doctors Without Borders, the group said in an earlier statement. The incident took place in the aftermath of an apparent ambush on an Ethiopian military convoy.

The three aid workers who died this week “were in Tigray providing assistance to people and it is unthinkable that they paid for this work with their lives,” the aid group said.

Ethiopia’s foreign ministry expressed condolences for the deaths and suggested that Tigray fighters were to blame. At least 12 aid workers have been killed since the conflict began.

Finbarr O'Reilly / New York Times Health care workers treat a soldier Friday in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Three aid workers employed by Doctors Without Borders were found killed in the wartorn area.