Hundreds of people were killed after a relief camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ethiopia’s Afar region was attacked by an armed group.
Regional officials on Monday reported that over 200 people, including more than 100 children, were killed in the attack that they say happened on Friday.
Sources told Newszetu that the incident occurred after artillery shells hit the IDP shelter cited in Zone four of Galicoma district last Friday.
Newszetu couldn’t immediately verify which armed group was behind the attack.
However, Ahmed Haloita, the region’s head of communications, told the BBC that the attack was carried out by fighters allied to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Following news of the gruesome killings, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) expressed alarm while calling on all parties to do everything in their power to protect children from harm.
“The intensification of fighting in Afar and other areas neighbouring Tigray, is disastrous for children,” a statement by Unicef boss Henrietta Fore said.
“It follows months of armed conflict across Tigray that have placed some 400,000 people, including at least 160,000 children, in famine-like conditions. Four million people are in crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity in Tigray and adjoining regions of Afar and Amhara. More than 100,000 have been newly displaced by the recent fighting, adding to the 2 million people already uprooted from their homes,” the agency boss added.
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