ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Two airports in the state or neighboring Tigre, where Ethiopian troops are battling local forces, were the target of late-night rocket fire on Friday, the government said, as the 11-day conflict in the region escalated.
The government said the two targeted airports were in our state. One – Gondar airport – struck on Friday, while the other – a rocket – Bahir Dar airport – missed the target, the government said.
The ruling Tigre party, the Tigre People’s Liberation Front or TPLF, said the Tigre defense forces fired missiles from Bahir Dar and Gondar military bases in various parts of the state to avenge Prime Minister Abi Ahmed’s air maneuvers.
In a statement on the Facebook page of the Tigre State Communications of Fish, TPLF spokesman Getechu Reda said the attacks intensified until the attacks on Tigre people stopped.
Mr Abi sent Ethiopian armed forces on an offensive against local troops in Tigre last week, after accusing them of attacking federal troops. Hundreds have been killed in the escalating conflict.
The prime minister said government warplanes were bombing military targets in Tigre, including weapons depots and equipment controlled by local forces in Tigre. The government says its military operation is aimed at restoring the rule of law in the mountainous state of Poos million.
A rocket that hit Gondar airport partially damaged it, Gondar Central Zone spokesman Kevke Varku said, adding that while another missile was fired simultaneously, it landed outside Bahir Dar airport.
“The TPLF junta is using the last weapons inside its arsenal,” the Ethiopian government’s Emergency Task Force wrote on Twitter.
The Amhara regional state army is fighting Tigre fighters along with their federal allies.
Johannes Aile, a Gondar resident, said he heard a loud explosion in the city’s Azedo neighborhood at about 10:30 p.m.
Another resident of the area said the rocket damaged the airport terminal building. The area was sealed off and firefighters’ vehicles were parked outside.
The United Nations, the African Union and others are concerned that the fighting could spread to other parts of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, and destabilize the region’s giant horn.
The UN refugee agency said on Friday that the pace of new arrivals had “overwhelmed the current capacity to provide assistance,” with more than 14,500 people fleeing to neighboring Sudan.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said it was sending investigators to the town of Mai Kaddara in Tigre, where it reported to Amnesty International this week that what it said was evidence of mass murder.
