Renewed violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray leaves dozens of children wounded

By Rédaction Africanews with AFP

Dozens of civilians have been killed or injured in Tigray since fighting broke out between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan rebels on September 23. The violence has not spared children.

In a Tigrayan hospital on Tuesday, children received treatment for leg wounds and limb loss after heavy shelling in the northern Ethiopian region.

On Sunday, a drone strike on a displacement camp in western Tigray killed eight people, including a child, an aid worker and witness told AFP. At least six others were seriously wounded.

And between September 26 and 28, shelling on the cities of Maychew and Alamata critically injured at least 44 civilians, including 33 children, according to a medical source.

“Some are blinded, some have their legs and hands amputated from the bombing,” the health worker told AFP last week.

Federal forces have pushed back the rebel offensive and this weekend seized the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, after leaders and troops of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front abandoned the city.

On Tuesday, members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force were stationed at Mekelle’s Alula Aba Nega International Airport.

The renewed fighting has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis and a return to the devastating civil war that killed an estimated 600,000 people between 2020 and 2022.