Tigray People’s Liberation Front: Addis Ababa bombed civilians with Emirati “drones”

This came in a post by Front spokesman Getachew Reda, on the Tigray region media office’s Facebook page, according to the American Associated Press.

“The Ethiopian Prime Minister is now relying on the support of the Emirati drones stationed in the Eritrean Assab (city) in his devastating war against the Tigrayans,” Getachew said.

Reza did not provide any evidence for the allegations related to Addis Ababa using Emirati drones in Tigray military operations.

While there was no immediate comment from the UAE on the matter.

According to the Associated Press, Abu Dhabi established a military presence in Eritrea in the port of Assab and an airport that was deserted there, but it was later said that it withdrew its forces after its withdrawal from the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

34 people were killed in an armed attack

In a related context, 34 people were killed, in an armed attack targeting a passenger bus in the territory of “Benishangul – Gumuz” northwest of Ethiopia.

The independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (non-governmental) reported, in a tweet via Twitter, that 34 people were killed in an armed attack, on Saturday.

The committee expressed its sadness and concern about the high death toll, describing the attack on the passenger bus from the city of “Nebira” to “Chagni” as “horrific”.

Until today, Sunday, no party claimed responsibility for the attack.

And local news in Ethiopia reported that a large number of civilians were killed at the end of last October, in the “Benishangul-Gumuz” region by armed groups.

On 26 September, 15 people were killed in an attack by armed men in the border region with Sudan.

On 4 November, armed confrontations began between the Ethiopian army and the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigrayans” in the region.

The Popular Front dominated political life in Ethiopia for about 3 decades, before Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, becoming the first prime minister of the “Oromo” ethnicity.

And “Oromo” is the largest ethnicity in Ethiopia with 34.9 percent of the population, which is about 108 million people, while Tigray is the third largest with 7.3 percent.

The front, which complains of the marginalization of the federal authorities, split from the ruling coalition, and challenged Abi Ahmed to hold regional elections last September, which the government considered “illegal”, in light of a federal decision to postpone the elections due to the Corona pandemic.