Children Among Civilian Casualties as Fighting Returns to Tigray

Renewed fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has left dozens of civilians dead or injured, with children among those reportedly killed and critically wounded.

Clashes between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan rebels began on September 23. Shelling and a reported drone strike have since caused civilian casualties across parts of northern Ethiopia, according to accounts cited in the source report.

Children suffer severe injuries

A medical source said shelling in Maychew and Alamata between September 26 and 28 critically injured at least 44 civilians, including 33 children.

Children were treated at a hospital in Tigray for leg wounds and the loss of limbs. A health worker who spoke to AFP described the severity of some injuries, saying: “Some are blinded, some have their legs and hands amputated from the bombing.”

The source report did not identify the hospital or the health worker.

Drone strike reported in western Tigray

An aid worker and a witness told AFP that a drone strike hit a displacement camp in western Tigray on Sunday. They said eight people were killed, including a child and an aid worker, while at least six others were seriously wounded.

The identities of the aid worker and witness were not provided.

Federal forces take Mekelle

The renewed violence has also brought a shift in control of the region’s main city. Ethiopian federal forces pushed back the rebel offensive and seized Mekelle over the weekend, after leaders and troops of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front abandoned the city.

Members of the Ethiopian National Defense Force were stationed at Mekelle’s Alula Aba Nega International Airport on Tuesday.

The fighting has raised concern over a wider humanitarian crisis and the possibility of a return to the civil war that devastated Tigray between 2020 and 2022. That conflict killed an estimated 600,000 people, according to the source report.