Air strike on kindergarten in Ethiopia’s Tigray kills 4
- Unicef condemned the attack in Mekele that also killed two children and injured nine others
- It added the 21-month war in Ethiopia’s north had ‘caused children to pay the heaviest price’
The UN children’s agency Unicef on Saturday condemned an air strike that “hit a kindergarten” in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, killing at least four people including two children.
Friday’s strike in the Tigray capital Mekele came days after fighting erupted on the region’s southern border between government forces and rebels, ending a five-month truce.
“Unicef strongly condemns the air strike … [that] hit a kindergarten, killing several children, and injuring others,” Unicef’s executive director Catherine Russell said on Twitter.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that controls the northern region said the air raid demolished a kindergarten and hit a civilian residential area, claims the government denied.
Addis Ababa said it only targeted military sites, and accused the TPLF of staging civilian deaths.
Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief clinical director at Mekele’s Ayder Referral Hospital, said that four people were killed in the strike, including two children.