Andrew Wasike and Addis Getachew
October 22, 2021
“The air attack targeted a military training centre formerly owned by the federal government,” the Communication Service Ministry told Anadolu Agency.
The target is where the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) has been training and organizing fighters for months, it said.
Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF official, accused the government of targeting civilians in its bid to gain control of territory taken by the rebels.
“(Prime Minister) Abiy Ahmed’s Air Force made three attempts to strike targets in Mekelle this afternoon. Our air defence forces have so far managed to protect our people. In the meantime, Abiy’s spineless army is suffering heavy losses everywhere,” said Getachew, a former communications minister.
TPLF accused the government of attacking areas near Lachi in Mekelle 00 the Tigray capital which is a neighborhood where civilians reside.
Residents took to social media where they posted videos and pictures of the attack and said injures had been recorded.
“We are having a humanitarian crisis here. People are suffering and living in fear of bombs that might rain from the sky at any time,” a teacher from Mekelle told Anadolu Agency.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said innocent civilians had been harmed in aerial attacks this week.
“Initial information from the ground indicates that civilians, including women and children, were injured, we are trying to gather more information. More than 5.2 mln people in Tigray need life-saving assistance,” he said,
TPLF said Monday that air attacks by the Ethiopian air force targeted a market and three civilians were killed, Ethiopia has rejected those claims.
The headline here goes ‘ Ethiopian Air Force destroyed a military training center’. How do know that? If you got that information from Bacha, Jula or one of those top brass you were taken on a long ride. This tells me that Abiy and his story telling generals are desperate to show the public something. Apparently they have not been able to show any vivid victory(success) on the ground so they have to come up with something to calm the nerves of the public, the public that send its precious children to the war front. Now Debre and his goons are gonna use this air raid as a fodder in their propaganda campaign. It is almost impossible to avoid collateral damage during air raids in areas where there also civilians living and working nearby. Here is my expectation and I hope and pray I will be proven wrong. Dessie will fall and will be left mangled by Debre’s heavy long range artillery. I would love to be dead wrong about that. Abiy better come up with a plan to stop and reverse this rampage by Debre. Otherwise there will be no vacancy awaiting him in Zimbabwe, Kenya or any other in Africa. The only choice he will have is to come here and join those losers already here and start scavenging at missionary canteens. Then there will be only one option left for me. That is to say farewell to my other love of my life called Ethiopia, that glorious country of upright people. I will tell her ‘good bye hon! You are irreparably wounded. Good bye love!’.
Ittu Abba Farda! I am afraid I must agree with your assessment. I also pray that your assessment of the situation turns wrong otherwise.
Yelemchenu,
I hope so too. That my worries will be just for nothing. I feel like I was bamboozled by Abiy’s amart aleck top brass. They had told us that with all that making face theatrics that Debre was beaten so bad that he was utterly decapitated. Well, well, well!! Now suddenly he is up and at’em knocking on the front door of Dessie! May be that is in military science chapters of Abiy’s ‘Selected Works’. May be it is in there! What do I know? I did not buy his book!!! What do they call it? What? I better stop it here. But what I can say is this: liar, liar, you pants are on fire!!!