TPLF denounces the death of “dozens of children and elderly people” in a bombing against displaced persons in Tigray (Ethiopia).

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has denounced this Tuesday a new drone attack against internally displaced persons in the region of Tigray and has highlighted that “dozens of children and elderly people” have died in the bombing, without Addis Ababa having pronounced itself on the matter.

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda denounced that “the air forces of (Ethiopian Prime Minister) Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President) Isaias (Afewerki) today carried out a horrific drone attack in Adi Daero.”

Asím has stated that “what is particularly outrageous is that the victims had previously been in shelters in Adiyabo” and added that “they were again forced to leave their camps because of the latest round of Afewerki and Abiy’s forces’ genocidal campaign against the people of Tigray.”

“This is happening under the watchful eye of international NGOs, whose activities are being curtailed by systematic attacks on civilian infrastructure, including trucks carrying humanitarian aid, by the forces of the twin tyrants in the Horn of Africa,” he said.

“We are not sure the international community will mention this tragedy, even as a footnote,” he has lamented through a series of messages on his Twitter social network account. “Tragic, but Tigray will prevail,” he has remonstrated.

Getachew himself denounced last week an Eritrean bombing of Adi Daero, adding that this act of “aerial terrorism” resulted in the death of several civilians, although Ethiopia later claimed that its Air Force had been responsible for the attack.

Addis Ababa did not comment on the possible impact of the attack on civilian areas, although it stressed that the TPLF was using medical facilities, schools, places of worship and residential areas to hide weapons.

The TPLF claimed on Monday to have withdrawn from the Amhara region (north) after nearly a month of deployment in several areas in the framework of the war in Tigray, as part of “a tactical geographical adjustment” to deal with the “existential danger” posed by the large-scale offensive by the Eritrean Army.

The conflict in Ethiopia erupted following a TPLF attack on the Army’s main base at Mekelle, after which the Abiy ordered an offensive against the group following months of tensions at the political and administrative levels. A “humanitarian truce” is currently in force, although both sides have accused each other of preventing the delivery of aid.

The TPLF accuses Abiy of whipping up tensions since his arrival in power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within Ethiopia’s ruling coalition since 1991, the ethnically-supported Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it saw as an attempt to undermine its influence.