Fresh reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has revealed that some of the Ethiopian forces on Friday had orchestrated a massive airstrike on the Tigrayan capital Mekele as the Ethiopian government had vowed to “take action” against military targets in the region.
The fresh development would be marking an escalation in the 21-month conflict, after some fresh fighting had broken out on the border with Tigray on Wednesday thereby shattering a truce that had sparked hopes for potential peace negotiations.
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Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said “a civilian residential area and kindergarten” were hit in Mekele on Friday, adding that civilians were among the casualties.
Two humanitarian sources said they had been informed of an airstrike in Mekele but no other details were available.
Shortly after reports of the airstrike emerged, Ethiopia’s government warned that it would “take action” against the TPLF and urged civilians to stay away from military targets in the region.
“While the readiness of the federal government to talk unconditionally is preserved, it will take action targeting the military forces… of the TPLF,” the Government Communication Service said in a statement.
The return to combat has alarmed the international community, which has been pushing both sides to peacefully resolve the brutal war in Africa’s second most populous nation.
It had been reported that some heavy fighting has erupted between some of the government forces and Tigrayan rebels in resumed conflicts in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday thereby shattering a five-month truce between the warring sides.
The renewed warfare would also be following the conflict that saw both sides repeatedly blaming each other for a lack of progress towards negotiations to end the brutal 21-month conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation.
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The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said government forces and their allies had launched a “large scale” offensive towards southern Tigray early Wednesday after a months-long lull in fighting.
But the Government Communication Service accused the TPLF of striking first, saying it had “destroyed the truce”.