The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) condemns the air raid that targeted the Ethiopian province of Tigray, noting that it hit a “kindergarten”, killing and wounding many children.
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Ethiopia: The strike hit a kindergarten, killing many children
“UNICEF strongly condemns the airstrike in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region in Ethiopia,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“The strike hit a kindergarten, killing many children and injuring a number of them,” she added.
“Children have once once more paid a heavy price for the escalation of violence in northern Ethiopia. For nearly two years, children and their families in the region have been suffering the horrors of this conflict. It must stop,” she noted.
Why we need the #SafeSchoolsDeclaration:
An Ethiopian government airstrike ripped through a kindergarten in the northern Tigray region on Friday, killing at least seven people including several children, reports the NYTimes: https://t.co/Gbdyzc0Cvu pic.twitter.com/aq1Fysvv28— Bede Sheppard (@BedeOnKidRights) August 27, 2022
An official at Ayder hospital in Mikkeli confirmed that the facility had received “four dead people, including two children, and nine wounded.” State television Tigray said “7 civilians, including three children” were killed.
The Ethiopian government responded that the Ethiopian Air Force only targeted “military sites”, accusing Tigrayan elements of “putting fake body bags in civilian areas to say that the planes targeted civilians.”
international condemnations
After the air raid on Mikkeli, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, from Tigray province, said: “I am speechless in front of this terrible event and the loss of innocent lives,” describing the strike as “brutal.”
The European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, condemned the strike, “which resulted in the death of civilians,” and called for “respect for international humanitarian law”, without referring to the place that the raid targeted.
“Civilians are not targets,” he tweeted.
Britain’s Africa Affairs Minister Vicki Ford referred to “horrific reports of air strikes in Tigray causing civilian casualties”. “All parties must respect international humanitarian law and make the protection of civilians a priority,” she said.
The government and the TPLF are accusing each other of being responsible for the resumption of fighting on the southeastern border of the region, which ended a five-month truce on Wednesday.
The war erupted in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abyei Ahmed launched a military operation on Tigray to expel the local authorities of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of carrying out attacks on federal army camps.
The war has caused thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than two million people, while the United Nations warns that thousands of Ethiopians are in a situation similar to starvation.