Ethiopia's Tigray hit by deadly drone strike: dissident authority

People who were injured in their town Togoga in a deadly airstrike on a market, receive medical treatments at the entrance hall of the Ayder referral hospital in Mekele, on June 24, 2021. [AFP]

A deadly drone strike hit Ethiopia's Tigray region, dissident authorities in the region said Saturday, accusing the federal government of escalating tensions and raising fears of renewed war.

A civil war in 2020-2022 between the federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which dominates the northern region, led to more than 600,000 deaths, according to African Union estimates.

A peace deal that ended the war has never been fully implemented and tensions have been mounting again in recent months.

A drone struck troops in Tigray early on Friday outside Shiraro, near the border with Eritrea, according to a statement on Facebook by the TPLF.

"This strike caused loss of life, bodily injury, and property damage to members of the Tigray Army who were engaged in their daily routines," it said, without giving further details.

The federal government is the only authority with access to drones in the region, and used them extensively during the civil war, as well as against ongoing insurgencies in the Amhara and Oromia regions.

The federal army did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.

In January, two drone strikes hit Tigray, resulting in one death, according to a local media outlet.

The TPLF effectively ruled the whole of Ethiopia for nearly 30 years until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power in 2018.

Abiy's government barred the TPLF from political activity last year, but it remains all-powerful in Tigray, with its own military.

It reinstated a local parliament in April that federal authorities deemed illegitimate.

Tigray had a population of some six million before the war. Around one million remain displaced from the conflict and the region is financially drained, as federal subsidies have been cut.

The region did not take part in nationwide elections held on June 1.