Jens Laerke, spokesperson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), mentioned at a briefing in Geneva that native well being employees within the Mekelle hospital confirmed that the kids had been killed on account of an airstrike on the outskirts of town.
A second airstrike in Mekelle city “reportedly injured nine people and caused damage to houses and a nearby hotel,” Laerke mentioned, including that the “intensification of the conflict is very alarming.”
The state-run Ethiopian Press Agency reported Monday that the Ethiopian Air Force “launched a successful offensive” towards a TPLF communication community and facility in Mekelle. Airstrikes have been “carried out with the utmost precision to prevent civilian casualties,” the report mentioned.
Earlier Monday, Ethiopia’s authorities communications chief Leggese Tulu denied the strikes, saying that “the government doesn’t have any plan to terrorize its own people. Why should it? It’s not true.”
“Those terrorists want to confuse the world by falsely claiming we are being attacked both by air and land to turn the world against Ethiopia,” Tulu instructed CNN.
In a separate assertion, the federal government spokesperson’s workplace additionally mentioned that “the government of Ethiopia would like to request the US and its partners not to be swayed by the crying wolf TPLF and downplay the suffering of people in north Wollo, Gonder, Wag Hemera of Amhara, and Afar regions.”
The Ethiopian army has been answerable for a lot of Tigray since November 2020, when it launched a serious assault on the area with the assist of Eritrean troopers and native militias in an effort to take away the TPLF from energy. It was the final time that airstrikes have been launched on Mekelle.
Mounting atrocities
An eyewitness to Monday’s incident in Mekelle instructed CNN she heard an explosion and noticed smoke within the neighborhood of Adi Haki Market, describing a scene of panic with folks working round when she left her workplace following the blast.
One resident of town instructed Reuters one strike hit near a market, behind a lodge. An assist employee and a health care provider within the area additionally mentioned there had been an assault and a diplomat shared photos with Reuters of what they mentioned was the aftermath, together with swimming pools of blood and smashed home windows.
Laerke reminded all events of their accountability in keeping with worldwide humanitarian regulation on Tuesday saying: “We also call on unrestricted and sustained humanitarian access to all people in need, who need our supplies. They also need fuel and cash.”
On Monday the UN Secretary-General António Guterres mentioned via his spokesman Stephane Dujarric that he was deeply involved over the escalation of the battle and reiterated his name for all hostilities to cease.
Ethiopia has seen a wave of atrocities during the last 11 months of battle, which has pressured 2 million to flee, fueled famine and left 1000’s lifeless. The battle, by many accounts, bears the hallmarks of genocide.
An estimated 18,600 kids in Tigray below the age of 5 have been admitted for remedy for extreme acute malnutrition (SAM) from February to August this 12 months, in keeping with UNICEF. That’s a 100% enhance in comparison with 2020, it mentioned.
CNN’s Kara Fox and Eliza Mackintosh contributed reporting.