Ethiopia Says Rockets Fired in Amhara as Violence Spreads
Ethiopia Says Rockets Fired in Amhara Region as Violence Spreads
Two airports in Ethiopia’s Amhara region were targeted in a rocket attack carried out by forces in the neighboring Tigray region as violence in the north of the country spreads.
Tigray People’s Liberation Front took responsibility for the rockets fired late Friday at the cities of Gondar and Bahir Dar, Getachew Reda, Executive Committee member of the TPLF said in an interview on Tigrai TV.
The central government’s Ethiopia State of Emergency task force blamed the TPLF for that attack that may have damaged the cities’ airports. The TPLF was using up the last of its arsenal, the task force said, without offering any proof. TPLF officials previously said they have a significant supply of weapons.
The shelling comes after reports of a massacre of ethnic Amharas this week that may have left hundreds of people dead, Amnesty International said.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands displaced since Ethiopian armed forces began attacking Tigray on Nov. 4 in retaliation for an assault on an army base that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed blamed on the region’s government. Relations between Tigray and Abiy’s administration have been strained since he took office in 2018 and began consolidating power and sidelining the TPLF, once the nation’s pre-eminent power broker.
No immediate details of casualties from the rocket attack were given by the task force.
Chalachew Negatu, a resident in Gondar said he heard two massive explosions late Friday evening that “vibrated the city.”
Some soldiers were taken to the hospital, said Chalachew. He was unaware if there had been any deaths.
Tigray President Debretsion Gebremichael said investigations were underway to find out how many rockets had been fired and what targets had been hit.
“Any airport used to attack Tigray will be a legitimate target,” he said.
He also claimed the TPLF has 10,000 prisoners of war including Eritrean soldiers.
Ethiopia’s Deputy Prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen Hassen, said Friday evening the government would shortly finish its ongoing military exercise against the ruling party in the restive Tigray region.
Addressing members of the diplomatic corps and international agencies, Demeke said the military operations were going to plan.
“We have clear objectives and a clear plan. The operation is progressing as planned,” he said. “We’re on track. We have a plan, successful plan. I don’t think it will take a long time,” said Demeke.
If attacks by both the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments don’t stop in the coming days the TPLF will continue rocket attacks on “selected targets,” said Getachew.
Earlier this week, Redwan Hussein, Ethiopia’s state minister of foreign affairs said the conflict has spilled over into neighboring Eritrea while Debretsion accused Eritrea of sending its own soldiers across the frontier to attack his troops.
Humanitarian Crisis
The attacks have led to a humanitarian crisis with over 17,000 people fleeing to neighboring Sudan the UNHCR said in a Tweet. Even before the attacks there were 96,000 refugees and 100,000 internally displaced people in Tigray, Catherine Sozi, the UN’s resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia, told reporters. There is “extreme urgency” for aid right now, she said.
“You can imagine at a time like this when there is conflict and there is confusion, where all the communication is cut, where there is food shortages, then we can’t reach the people who we need to provide services to, then we are concerned that every hour every day that the conflict continues that the most vulnerable people become even more vulnerable,” she said.
The UN currently has around 670 staff in the Tigray region providing care to people in the refugee camps and assisting internally displaced people, she said. But, she said, there was a huge problem getting access to both fuel and food in some areas.
“The water tanks run on generators, the hospitals are running on generators. If there is no electricity, there is no communication then it just makes it that much harder to serve and provide assistance,” she said.
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