Dozens of people were killed in an airstrike in the town of Tagogon in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region on Tuesday.
According Eye witnesses, a plane dropped a bomb on a local market about 1 p.m. local time.
The official and two other health workers helping with the response in Togoga said on Wednesday that Ethiopian soldiers were blocking the main road from Mekelle to the town and preventing ambulances from reaching the scene.
“Patients are dying right now,” said the official.
He said two ambulances had been able to reach the town via a back road late on Tuesday but did not have the necessary equipment and were not being allowed to leave.
He said the teams had counted at least 40 dead at the scene, three people had died overnight, and there were 44 critically wounded patients needing treatment.
An Ethiopian military spokesman, Colonel Getnet Adane, indirectly addressed the allegation, he did not confirm or deny the attack, saying …”only that airstrikes are a conventional military tactic and the military does not target civilians”
On Tuesday, residents said new fighting had erupted in recent days on the northside of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle.
Tigray has been embroiled in conflict since November, when the Ethiopian military launched an offensive to oust the ruling Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The Eritrean military has been helping Ethiopian troops battle the TPLF in the ongoing dispute.
Since the fighting erupted, thousands of people have been killed and some 2 million others have fled their homes to escape the violence.
