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The Ethiopian government has accused forces loyal to the ruling party in the northern Tigray region of firing rockets at the neighboring Amhara region, raising fears that the ongoing fighting may attract other parts of the country.
Two airports in Amhara state were hit Friday night with one of the rockets hitting the airport in Gondar, partially damaging it, said Awoke Worku, a spokesman for central Gondar. A second shell fired simultaneously landed on the outskirts of Bahir Dar airport.
Forces from the Amhara regional state have been fighting alongside their federal counterparts against the Tigray fighters.
“In the last hours of November 13, 2020, a rocket was fired towards the cities of Bahir Dar and Gondar. As a result, areas of the airport have suffered damage, ”said a government statement on Saturday.
“The TPLF [military government] it is using the latest weapons in its arsenals, “he added.
Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray’s ruling party, said he had no information on the reported attacks, but noted that TPLF officials have said that “any airport used to attack Tigray will be a legitimate target “.
The airports in Bahir Dar, the regional capital, and Gondar are used by both military and civil aircraft. An Ethiopian Airlines worker who did not want to be named said flights to Gondar and Bahir Dar airports had been canceled after the attack.
Residents also reported hearing gunshots in both cities on Friday night, although a statement from the Amhara regional government said “the situation was brought under control within minutes” and “our cities are at peace.
Evidence of mass murder
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched military operations in Tigray last week, saying the move was sparked by TPLF attacks on federal military camps in the region, a claim the TPLF denies.
The conflict in the Tigray region has killed hundreds, sent thousands of refugees to Sudan, and raised fears that it could lure Eritrea or force Ethiopia to divert troops from an African force that opposes fighters linked to al- Qaeda in Somalia.
The United Nations, the African Union and others are concerned that the fighting could spread to other parts of Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa, and destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region.
More than 14,500 people have fled to neighboring Sudan with the speed of the new arrivals “overwhelming the current capacity to provide aid,” the UN refugee agency said on Friday.
Ethiopia’s government-appointed but independent Human Rights Commission said it was dispatching a team of investigators to the town of Mai Kadra in Tigray, where Amnesty International reported this week what it said was evidence of mass killings.
The commission will investigate any human rights violations in the conflict, it said in a statement.
Tigray has been in a communications outage since the operation began, making it difficult to verify the claims of both camps about the situation on the ground.
Volunteers gather to donate blood to wounded members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces fighting the Tigray special forces on Wednesday. [Tiksa Negeri/Al Jazeera]‘Systematic persecution’
Abiy accuses TPLF, which rules the mountainous region of more than five million people, of treason and “terrorism.”
Federal troops say the TPLF rose up against them last week, but they have since survived a siege and have retaken the west of the region.
The TPLF says the Abiy government has systematically persecuted the Tigrayans since taking office in April 2018, calling the military operations an “invasion.”
Federal troops have been conducting air raids and fighting on the ground since Wednesday of last week.
Military officials have vowed to keep the conflict contained in Tigray, and Abiy has repeatedly promised a swift and decisive victory.
But Amhara and Tigray are embroiled in long-running land disputes along their shared border that analysts fear could lead Amhara into conflict.
A Bahir Dar resident told the AFP news agency that there were “two strong explosions around 10:50 pm.”
“After that, there were shots fired for 15 minutes, and then he was silent,” the resident said.
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