Defiant forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have fired rockets and targeted airports in neighbouring Amhara regional state, the Ethiopian government claimed on Saturday.
“In the late hours of November 13, 2020, rockets were fired towards Bahir Dar & Gondar cities. As a result, the airport areas have sustained damages. The TPLF junta is utilizing the last of the weaponry within its arsenals,” Ethiopia Emergency Fact Sheet said in a statement.
Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesperson Getachew Reda confirmed that its forces launched missile attacks on Gondar and Bahir Dar and threatened the Eritrean capital Asmara with a similar attack.
Getachew said the attacks were a retaliation for air strikes by federal forces ordered by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
“As long as the attacks on the people of Tigray do not stop, the attacks will intensify,” Getachew said in a statement posted on the Facebook page of the Tigray state’s communications office.
The Ethiopian government on Saturday said that the rockets have caused minor damage to Gondar airport.
Human rights defenders Amnesty International said they have confirmed that “scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death” in the town of Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) on 9 November.
Prime Minister Ahmed has accused forces loyal to Tigray’s leaders of carrying out the mass killings, while the TPLF has denied involvement.
MG/as/APA