The end of the truce is confirmed in Ethiopia.

At least four people, including two children, were killed and nine injured Friday, August 26 in a bombardment carried out by the Ethiopian air force on Mekele, capital of the rebel region of Tigray, announced to AFP an official of the main hospital of the city.

Ayder Hospital in Mekele "received 13 patients, four of whom were dead on arrival. Two of the dead are children," said its medical director, Dr Kibrom Gebreselassie, in a message to AFP.

>> To read also: "The war in Ukraine, a playing card for the government and the Ethiopian rebels"

The bombardment in the heart of this dissident region of northern Ethiopia marks a sharp escalation after the resumption of fighting on Wednesday between government forces and Tigrayan rebels of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) on the southern border of the region.

This return to violence ended a five-month truce.

"At midday, a plane... dropped bombs on a residential area and a kindergarten in Mekele. Civilians were killed and injured," Kindeya said in a message to AFP. Gebrehiwot, a spokesman for the rebel authorities.

Two humanitarian sources said they had been informed of an airstrike in Mekele, without giving details or a toll.

Shortly after, the federal government announced in a press release that, although it remained "fully prepared" to talk unconditionally with the rebels, it intended "to carry out actions targeting the military forces (...) opposed to peace". .

He called on people living in Tigray "to stay away from areas where rebel military equipment and training facilities" are located.

Several thousand dead since the beginning of the war 

The resumption of fighting worries the international community, which fears a resumption of the conflict on a large scale and to see annihilated the meager hopes of peace negotiations.

As of Wednesday, many countries and international organizations, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union in the lead, called for a cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution to the conflict which has lasted for 21 months.

Since it erupted in November 2020, the war in northern Ethiopia has claimed several thousand lives, displaced more than two million people and plunged hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians into near-famine conditions, according to the United Nations.

The truce concluded at the end of March notably allowed the gradual resumption of the delivery of humanitarian aid by road to Tigray, after a three-month interruption.

Since the end of June, the Ethiopian government and the Tigray rebels have repeatedly expressed their readiness to begin peace negotiations, but continue to disagree on their terms.

The federal government notably wants immediate talks without preconditions, under the aegis of the African Union (AU).

The rebels demanded that electricity, telecommunications and banking services, of which Tigray is deprived, be restored beforehand, and rejected the mediation of the High Representative of the AU, Olusegun Obasanjo.

With AFP 

The summary of the

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

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR