December 06, 2024 2:14 AM
By Gelmo Dawit
Kennedy Abate
Harun Maruf
FILE - Displaced people are seen at the Shire campus of Aksum University, which was turned into a temporary shelter for people displaced by conflict, in the town of Shire, Tigray region, Ethiopia, March 14, 2021.
ADDIS ABABA / WASHINGTON —
Ethiopia, home to the African Union, is grappling with intensified military operations, rebel attacks, drone strikes on villages, unverified reports of beheadings, abductions, school and hospital closures, and growing calls for peace — all unfolding simultaneously.
On November 5, residents of the town of Gojam in the Amhara region were enjoying a quiet day when they heard a drone overhead. In quick succession, they said, the drone dropped bombs on a market and a health center. Locals said more than 40 people were killed.
One resident told VOA's Horn of Africa Service that the bomb that hit the health center landed on a waiting room for pregnant mothers. "It hit that room and killed five mothers and two assistants. Seven people died in that single room," he said.
Locals blame the attack on the federal government, which has been fighting Fano rebels in the region, though the government denies responsibility.
The incident underscored the chaos and violence that have engulfed much of Ethiopia despite promises of peace from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed when he took power in 2018. Abiy brought a formal end to the country's long-running conflict with Eritrea, but his time in office has been marked by ethnically driven conflicts in the Oromia, Tigray and Amhara regions, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions.
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https://www.voanews.com/amp/ethiopia-s- ... 89328.html