Air strike kills dozens in Tigray, witnesses say
NAIROBI, Kenya — An air strike hit a busy market in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray village of Togoga on Tuesday and killed at least 51 people, according to health workers who said soldiers blocked medical teams from traveling to the scene.
An official with Tigray’s health bureau said more than 100 other people were wounded, more than 50 seriously, and at least 33 people were still missing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about retaliation.
The alleged air strike comes amid some of the fiercest fighting in the Tigray region since the conflict began in November as Ethiopian forces supported by those from neighboring Eritrea pursue Tigray’s former leaders. A military spokesman and the spokeswoman for Ethiopia’s prime minister, Billene Seyoum, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wounded patients being treated at Ayder hospital in the regional capital, Mekele, told doctors and a nurse that a plane dropped a bomb on Togoga’s marketplace. The patients included a 2yearold child with “abdominal trauma” and a 6yearold, the nurse said. An ambulance carrying a wounded baby to Mekele, almost 37 miles away by road, was blocked for two hours and the baby died on the way, the nurse added, speaking on condition of anonymity because of concerns about retaliation.
Hailu Kebede, foreign affairs head for the Salsay Woyane Tigray opposition party and who comes from Togoga, said one fleeing witness to the attack had counted more than 30 bodies in the remote village that’s linked to Mekele in part by challenging stretches of dirt roads.
“It was horrific,” said a staffer with an international aid group who said he had spoken with a colleague and others at the scene. “We don’t know if the jets were coming from Ethiopia or Eritrea. They are still looking for bodies by hand.”
On Tuesday afternoon, a convoy of ambulances attempting to reach Togoga, about 15 miles west of Mekele, was turned back by soldiers near Tukul, the health workers said. Several more ambulances were turned back later in the day and on Wednesday morning, but one group of medical workers reached the site on Tuesday evening via a different route.
The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says it has nearly defeated the rebels.
But forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which governed Tigray until it was ousted by a federal government offensive in November, recently announced an offensive in parts of Tigray and have claimed a string of victories.
The reports came as Ethiopia held federal and regional elections on Monday. The vote was peaceful in most parts of the country, although there was no voting in Tigray.