The attack hit a busy market in Tigray, where there has been fierce fighting as Ethiopian forces pursue the region’s former leaders.
An airstrike hit a busy market in the northern Tigray village of Togoga in Ethiopia on Tuesday, according to health workers who said soldiers had blocked medical teams from traveling to the scene. Dozens of people were killed, they and a former resident said, citing witnesses. Two doctors and a nurse in Tigray’s regional capital, Mekele, said they were unable to confirm how many people had been killed, but one doctor said health workers at the scene reported more than 80 civilian deaths. The health workers spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The reports of the airstrike come after some of the fiercest fighting in the Tigray region since the conflict began in November, as Ethiopian forces supported by neighboring Eritrea pursue Tigray’s former leaders. A military spokesman and the spokeswoman for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wounded patients being treated at Mekele’s Ayder hospital told health workers that a plane had dropped a bomb on Togoga’s marketplace. The six patients included a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old, the nurse said. An ambulance carrying a wounded baby to Mekele, about 35 miles away by road, was blocked for two hours and the baby died on the way, the nurse added. Hailu Kebede, the head of foreign affairs for the Salsay Woyane Tigray opposition party, who comes from Togoga, said that one fleeing witness to the attack had counted more than 30 bodies and other witnesses were reporting more than 50 people killed.
