NAIROBI, Oct 30 (Reuters) – At least 15 people, several of them children, died in a series of drone strikes that hit a camp for displaced civilians in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, two sources involved in a rescue operation said on Friday.
It was not clear why the camp was targeted or who was behind the attack, but the strikes highlight continuing clashes in the area despite a lull in the heavy fighting that erupted last month between an alliance of rebels from northern Tigray region and the government in Addis Ababa.
“There were around five explosions. Then … we started collecting bodies,” a community representative involved in the burials told Reuters, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The representative said they helped bury 13 people at the camp, which is known as Jari 2 and is home to more than 1,700 people who fled previous violence.
Two of the injured later died at a hospital in Hayk, a town 17 km (10 miles) away.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A local official said they were aware of the incident and were helping get medical treatment to 36 people who had been injured.
A man who lost a family member described seeing a drone circling overhead on Wednesday and then returning on Thursday.
“Then finally it hit the camp … three times,” the relative told Reuters. “Their body parts were scattered everywhere. We collected and buried pieces of their body parts.”
NO FIGHTING IN THE AREA WHEN CAMP HIT
A resident of Hayk who was helping provide shelter to survivors also said 15 people had been killed. “Those from the camp are now sheltering in a school,” the resident said.
The dead included five children, according to the two sources involved in the rescue.
The relative of one of the victims said they had seen at least 10 injured children under the aged of five receiving treatment.
All three sources said there had been no fighting in the area when the strike took place, but members of the Amhara Fano National Movement, which is part of the rebel alliance spearheaded by fighters from Tigray, had been nearby.
Government troops have driven back the rebel alliance since their offensive was launched on September 23.
They retook the capital of Tigray region earlier this month and advanced towards the border with Eritrea, which Ethiopia accuses of supporting the rebellion by sending troops over the border.
Eritrea denies the accusation and says Addis Ababa’s allegations of an invasion by Eritrean forces amounted to a “declaration of war”.
Given the web of interconnected conflicts in the Horn of Africa, with neighbouring countries and powers further afield backing their respective proxies, experts have warned that war in Ethiopia could trigger a broader conflict in the region.
(Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by David Holmes and Ros Russell)
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