Government spokesman denies reports of air raids as TPLF-controlled Tigrai TV says several wounded in Mekelle.
Several civilians have been wounded in air raids on Mekelle, the capital of northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, according to television controlled by regional authorities as the government rejected the reports.
They are the first reported air raids in Mekelle since the conflict erupted last year, although there have been others in the Tigray region.
Tigrai TV said the attack on the city of Mekelle was carried out by “Abiy Ahmed”, referring to Ethiopia’s prime minister and the government forces he leads.
A government spokesman denied reports of government air attacks on Mekelle.
Tigrai TV is controlled by the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The first air raid occurred in the morning on the outskirts of Mekelle near a cement factory, the AFP news agency reported, citing humanitarian and diplomatic sources.
The second took place about midday in the city centre near the Planet Hotel, often used by top officials from the TPLF, AFP reported.
The TPLF said the aerial assaults were designed to inflict civilian casualties.
“Monday is market day in Mekelle & the intention is all too palpable,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said on Twitter.
Conflict erupted between the TPLF and the Ethiopian central government last November.
Government forces swiftly drove the TPLF from Tigray’s cities and towns, but the rebels retook most of the region, including its capital Mekelle, by late June.
In July, the TPLF pushed into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions, a move it said was intended to prevent government forces from regrouping and to break what it describes as a humanitarian siege of Tigray, where the UN estimates hundreds of thousands face famine-like conditions.
Last month, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said the TPLF had “suffered great losses” and been “routed” from Afar, while the TPLF said it had withdrawn troops from the region to focus on other fronts, including in Amhara.
Last week, TPLF spokesman Getachew told Reuters that the Ethiopian military and allies from the Amhara region were fighting the Tigrayan forces on several fronts, in both the Amhara and Afar.
Pleas from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and African nations for the warring sides to stop the fighting have failed, even as the US threatens new sanctions targeting individuals in Africa’s second most populous nation.
The war has killed thousands of people and forced more than two million to flee their homes.
There have been myriad reports of massacres and atrocities, including rape and extrajudicial killings, and hundreds of thousands of people suffering famine.