Mekele Hit by Fresh Airstrikes, Government Says it Targeted Weapons Facilities

Mekele hasn't witnessed too much violence since the Tigray rebels recaptured a majority of the city in June.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo Courtesy: Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed Ali Organized Supporters/Facebook)

The capital of Tigray region in Ethiopia, the city of Mekele, was hit by a new wave of airstrikes on Wednesday, 20 October, Reuters and Associated Press reported.

The Ethiopian government led by Nobel Peace Prize winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said its attacks were targeting weapons facilities and ensured steps to avoid civilian casualties.

“Indeed there have been airstrikes in Mekele today,” Legesse Tulu, a spokesman for the Ahmed government said, and that their targets were sites at the Mesfin Industrial Engineering complex, which rebels use to produce and repair their weapons.

More than a dozen were wounded as a result of the airstrikes and three of them were in critical condition, according to what Hayelom Kebede, ex-director of Ayder Referral Hospital, told the Associated Press.

The Tigray rebels categorically denied that the targeted site in Mekele was a spot for weapons production.

"Not at all," Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a spokesman for the rebels told the Associated Press.

He went on to add that the site was just an old garage with a lot of tyres, which is why it was "still blazing".

These airstrikes came two days after the Ethiopian administration confirmed airstrikes that hit Mekele on Tuesday, 19 October, killing three children.

Until now, Mekele hasn't witnessed too much violence since the rebels forces recaptured a majority of the city in June.

Northern Ethiopia has been torn apart by a civil war between the Ahmed government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front.

The war has been rampaging for almost a year now.

(With inputs from Reuters, Associated Press, and BBC)