At least four people, including two children, were killed Friday, August 26, in an airstrike by the Ethiopian army on Mekele, capital of the rebel region of Tigray, two days after the resumption of hostilities. On Saturday, the director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), Catherine Russel, accused Ethiopia of having “hit a kindergarten”.
Unicef is the first international organization to confirm rebel claims that a plane “dropped bombs on residential area and kindergarten in Mekele”. The Ethiopian government had replied that its aviation was only aimed “military sites”and accused the rebels of staging.
The balance sheet is uncertain. An official of the largest hospital in Mekele told AFP that he had received four dead, including two children, and nine injured. Tigray’s official television claimed that “seven civilians including three children” had been killed.
Northern Ethiopia is inaccessible to journalists, making independent verification of the strike and its toll impossible. AFP claims not to have been able to reach a manager in Tigray on Saturday to clarify the results of official television, because the mobile network and the internet are also uncertain there.
The strike marks a sharp escalation after fighting resumed on Wednesday between government forces and Tigray rebels of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ended a five-month truce. Before this bombardment, the fighting had remained confined to two areas in the south-east of the region.
On Friday, the Ethiopian federal government announced in a statement that, although there remained “fully disposed” to discuss unconditionally with the rebels, he intended “carry out actions targeting military forces (…) opposed to peace”. He called on the population living in Tigray “to stay away from areas where military equipment and training facilities are located” rebels.
The resumption of fighting worries the international community. As of Wednesday, many countries and international organizations, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union in the lead, called for a cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution to the conflict which has lasted since November 2020.