Ethiopia: Tigray fires rockets again in neighboring Amhara region

Rockets fired by Tigray forces, which are clashing with the Ethiopian federal army, again targeted the neighboring Amhara region hours after the central government claimed its troops were closing in on Mekele, capital of the dissident region.

Friday, November 20 at around 1:40 am local time, an AFP journalist in Bahir Dar, capital of the Amhara region, located about 200 km south of the Tigray border, heard two loud explosions, followed by several minutes of gunfire. automatic weapons.

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Amhara region communications official Gizachew Muluneh told AFP on Friday morning that three rockets had been fired at Bahir Dar from Tigray, but missed their targets.

Two fell near the airport and one in a cornfield, he added, adding that they had not caused any casualties or damage.

But journalists in Bahir Dar were not allowed to access the sites in question.

"

" Gizachew said of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) authorities. ), whose troops have been facing the Ethiopian Federal Army since November 4.

Amhara Mass Media also attributed the shootings to "

", which rules the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.

The authorities in Tigray - a region largely subject to a blackout since the start of the Ethiopian military offensive - were not immediately available.

In a statement, however, they said that the aviation of "

" of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had bombed Thursday Mekele, injuring "

".

Since it launched this military operation in Tigray, the federal government has ensured that its aerial bombardments only target arms or fuel depots and are carried out in such a way as to avoid civilian casualties.

None of the claims of either side can be verified from an independent source, as Tigray is virtually cut off from the world.

The TPLF had already claimed the shooting on November 13, rockets then targeting the airports of Bahir Dar and Gondar, another locality of Amhara, a hundred km further north, used according to him by the aircraft of the Ethiopian aviation bombarding Tigray.

The Tigray authorities also admitted firing rockets the next day at Asmara, the capital of neighboring Eritrea which borders the entire northern border of Tigray, accusing the Eritrean authorities of letting the forces of Addis Ababa use its territory and the army. Eritrean to lend them a hand in the fighting in Tigray.