Two airstrikes hit the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region Wednesday morning, killing 10 people, according to the director of the city’s flagship Ayder Referral Hospital.
The target in Mekele “was a residential neighborhood,” Kibrom Gebreselassie told The Associated Press. “Three of the victims need urgent major surgery, in the face of (a) shortage of medicines and zero medicines.”
A second doctor told the AP the fatalities occurred in the second strike.
The death toll could climb as more patients reach the hospital, a third doctor said. The two doctors spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In a weekend statement to mark the beginning of Ethiopia’s new year, the Tigray leadership said they were ready to participate in an “immediate” cessation of hostilities leading to a comprehensive ceasefire. But Ethiopia’s federal government is yet to publicly respond amid reports of more talks between the two sides in Djibouti.
Several airstrikes have hit Mekele since fighting resumed between Tigray forces and Ethiopia’s government in late August, shattering a period of relative calm since late March.
That calm had allowed more humanitarian aid to reach Tigray but those deliveries have now been halted, according to the United Nations. Deliveries to conflict-affected parts of the neighboring Amhara region have also stopped.
Since the conflict broke out in November 2020, tens of thousands are believed to have been killed and millions displaced in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions.
