Ethiopia says only combatants hit in Tigray air strike

Only combatants, not civilians, were struck in an air strike this week in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the country’s military spokesman said on Thursday.

Colonel Getnet Adane said the combatants in the town of Togoga were dressed in civilian clothes.

An air strike killed at least 43 people in the town on Tuesday, a medical official reported.

The strike took place after residents said new fighting had flared in recent days north of the regional capital Mekelle.

A resident of the town on Wednesday said that the air strike a day earlier had hit a market in the town west of Mekelle at around 1 pm, injuring her 2-year-old daughter.

The military spokesman said the combatants were not inside the market, but had gathered in the town to commemorate the anniversary of the bombing of another town in Tigray, Hawzen, in 1988. The attack, by Ethiopia’s then-ruling Communist leaders, killed hundreds of people and is widely commemorated in Tigray.

The spokesman said he did not have the death toll from the strike but that it would come soon.

The military has been battling forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the region’s former ruling party, since November.

Fighting has displaced 2 million people, and the United Nations has warned of a possible famine.

The air strike took place as Ethiopian officials counted ballots from national and regional parliamentary elections held this week in seven of the nation’s 10 regions.

No voting was held in Tigray, and security concerns and problems with ballot papers also delayed voting in two other regions.

Olajumoke Adeleke/Reuters