Aid organizations have suspended activities in the northwestern Ethiopian warring region of Tigray after a deadly airstrike on a camp for internally displaced people, the UN said on Sunday (January 9th).

"Humanitarian partners have suspended activities in the region due to continued threats of drone strikes," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) told AFP.

According to Ocha's preliminary information, the attack, carried out around midnight on Friday in the town of Dedebit, "claimed dozens of civilian casualties, including deaths".

The Tigrayan rebels on Saturday accused the government of carrying out a drone attack that they said killed 56 people, while an official at the main hospital in the region said 55 dead and 126 injured.

But it was impossible to verify these claims independently, access to Tigray being very restricted and communications cut off in this region.

Ethiopian government officials did not respond to AFP's pleas for the attack.

According to Ocha, the lack of essential supplies, in particular medical equipment and fuel, "seriously disrupts the response to the injured and has led to the almost total collapse of the health system in Tigray".

"The intensification of airstrikes is alarming, and we once again remind all parties to the conflict that they must respect their obligations under international humanitarian law," the UN agency added.

The attack came as the Ethiopian government announced amnesties for several top Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) officials and other opposition leaders, calling for "national reconciliation" .

>> To read also - Conflict in Tigray: a political and humanitarian impasse for the Ethiopian power

The TPLF has taken up arms since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the federal army to Tigray in November 2020 to remove the regional authorities - from the TPLF - who challenged his authority and whom he accused of having attacked bases military.

A TPLF counter-offensive enabled the rebels to reconquer most of the region at the end of June 2021 and to advance in those neighboring Amhara and Afar.

They said in November that they had arrived 200 km from Addis Ababa.

The conflict has claimed thousands of lives.

Tigray, subject according to the UN to a "de facto blockade" of humanitarian aid.

The rebels withdrew at the end of December in their stronghold of Tigray in the face of a military offensive by government forces, which regained control of a series of strategic towns.

The clashes had been on a lull since the TPLF retired, although the rebels accuse the government of continuing to carry out deadly drone strikes on Tigray.

Three other people were killed in an airstrike on a refugee camp in the region, the UN reported this week.

The US State Department's Office for African Affairs called the attacks "unacceptable," calling on Twitter "for an immediate end to hostilities, a swift launch of an inclusive national dialogue and unhindered access for the aid can reach all Ethiopian communities in need ".

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR