Today, Friday, the Ethiopian army carried out a new air strike on the capital of Tigray region, which left 11 injured and disrupted a humanitarian support flight for the United Nations, while the Ethiopian government said that 7 civilians, including children, were killed and others wounded, as a result of shelling with heavy weapons by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. It targeted Iwa district, in the Afar region, adjacent to Tigray, in northern Ethiopia.

The air strike carried out by Ethiopian government forces hit a university in Mekele, the capital of Tigray province, on Friday, according to some sources, while thousands fled south, according to rebel forces in the region and sources of aid organizations.

The government said the strike targeted a former army base now used by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which controls the northern province.

Today, Friday, is the fourth day in which the government forces launched an air bombardment on Mekele, balanced with the intensification of battles in the south in the neighboring Amhara region, in which the government is trying to regain the lands seized by the Tigray People's Liberation Front in recent months.

The nearly year-long war between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which ruled Ethiopia for three decades and no longer controls only the Tigray region, has left thousands dead and more than two million people displaced.

Tigrayan People's Liberation Front spokesman Getachew Reda told Reuters the strike targeted Mekele University, but he had no information on casualties, while government spokesman Legisi Tulu said the university had not been hit.

Three sources with humanitarian organizations in Ethiopia, citing information from residents in Mekele, told Reuters that the strike hit the university.

The aerial bombardment is part of a new government campaign to weaken the forces of the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

Tigray TV, which is controlled by the PFLP, reported that the strike hit the university campus and that 11 civilians were wounded.


Sources with humanitarian organizations said that a United Nations plane, which was heading from Addis Ababa to Mekele, was forced to turn back due to the air strike on Friday.

The international community expressed concern about the recent operations.

A US State Department spokesman said Wednesday that Washington "condemns the continued escalation of violence and endangerment of civilians" in Tigray.

Fighting in Amhara

The air strikes on Tigray come amid reports of heavy fighting in the vast Amhara region south of Tigray, where the LTTE has launched an offensive since July.

Last week, the Ethiopian army launched a ground offensive with the aim of expelling the LTTE fighters from the lands they seized in July in the Amhara region.

The Amhara forces have been fighting alongside the Federal Army against the Tigray People's Liberation Front since the outbreak of the war.

Sources with humanitarian organizations and local officials said that the renewed fighting has forced thousands to flee their homes in the eastern part of Amhara.

Residents in the town of Disi told Reuters today, Friday, that fear has spread in the town since the Tigray People's Liberation Front spokesman Getachew Reda announced on Wednesday that their fighters had taken control of at least two new towns in the area, putting the towns of Kombolcha and Disi "within artillery range". Thousands of people have previously resorted to them in light of the advance of the Front's forces.

Communications are cut off in much of northern Ethiopia, and access to journalists is restricted, making it difficult to independently verify developments on the ground.

fuel shortage

The United Nations continues to sound the alarm about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Tigray.

In its weekly report on the conflict in Tigray published Thursday evening, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that many humanitarian organizations have had to suspend food distribution due to fuel shortages at a time when the population's needs are becoming increasingly urgent.

And about 14 petrol tankers broke down in the Afar region, where the only land road leading to Tigray is located, despite obtaining permission to travel, as confirmed by the UN agency.