An air raid has hit a neighbourhood near a hospital in the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, said the head of another hospital which received casualties, less than a week after fighting shattered a four-month-old ceasefire.
Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive of Ayder Referral Hospital, said on Twitter that an area near Mekelle General Hospital had been hit late on Tuesday.
The extent of the damage and casualties was unclear.
Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse Tulu, military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum did not respond to requests for comment on the air attack.
Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray regional government, said on Twitter that at least three bombs had been dropped and that the Mekelle hospital was among the targets.
Another doctor at Ayder confirmed to Reuters he had heard three explosions late at night.
Reuters was unable to reach people in Mekelle for confirmation because the region has not had phone communication since Ethiopian troops pulled out more than a year ago.
The latest strike follows a hit on a children’s play area on Friday that killed seven people, including women and children.
The renewed fighting marks the end of a ceasefire observed since March and comes as a big blow to attempts to start peace talks between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that controls Tigray.
The conflict has displaced millions of people, pushed parts of the region into famine and killed thousands of civilians.
Earlier this month, the government said it wanted talks “with no preconditions”, while Tigray’s government has called for the restoration of services to civilians first.
Tigray has been without banking and telephone services since the federal military pulled out at the end of June. Imports of fuel are restricted, limiting the distribution of aid.
