More Than 50 Killed In Northern Ethiopia Air Strike, Say Aid Workers And Tigray Forces

NAIROBI, Oct 5 – More than 50 people were killed in an air strike on Tuesday that hit a school in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region that was sheltering people displaced by conflict between the federal and regional governments, two aid workers and Tigray forces said.

The air strike in the town of Adi Daero appears to be one of the deadliest carried out during the nearly two-year war, which has killed thousands and uprooted millions.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the incident.

Survivors of the strike told humanitarian workers after fleeing to the town of Shire, about 25 km (15 miles) away, that at least 50 people had been killed and more than 70 injured, an aid worker in Shire told Reuters.

Another aid worker, who was briefed on the death toll by colleagues, said 62 people had been killed. This person did not have information about the number of people wounded.

The two aid workers asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The external relations office of Tigray’s regional government said in a statement that 65 people had been killed and 70 injured in the strike.

The deadliest previous air strike of the war occurred in January, when 59 people were killed at a displaced persons camp in the northwestern town of Dedebit, according to the United Nations’ human rights office.