-On Friday, an air strike targeted Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which the separatist authorities blamed on the federal government, according to local media controlled by the breakaway authorities.
Tigrai Television broadcast photos of damaged buildings and injured individuals lying on the ground being cared to by medical staff.
An assistance organisation confirmed hearing an explosion and anti-aircraft gunfire in Mekelle. A second humanitarian organisation in Mekelle confirmed hearing an explosion as a result of the air strike.
Earlier on Friday, the Ethiopian government issued a statement urging Tigrayan civilians to avoid military and training sites, stating that the government intended to “take actions to target the military forces.”
Legesse Tulu, a government spokesperson, did not answer to Reuters’ questions on the air strike.
The strike comes only days after combat between the national government and Tigrayan troops restarted on the border between the two regions.
Both parties have blamed one other for violating a four-month-old ceasefire between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray’s ruling party.
(Nairobi Newsroom contributed reporting, George Obulutsa wrote the piece, and Hugh Lawson edited it.)