Airstrike in Ethiopia's Tigray kills more than 50

An airstrike hit a busy market in Ethiopia's northern Tigray village of Togoga on Tuesday and killed at least 51 people, according to health workers who said soldiers blocked medical teams from travelling to the scene.

An official with Tigray's health bureau told The Associated Press that more than 100 other people were wounded, more than 50 seriously, and at least 33 people were still missing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about retaliation.

The alleged airstrike comes amid some of the fiercest fighting in the Tigray region since the conflict began in November as Ethiopian forces supported by those from neighbouring Eritrea pursue Tigray's former leaders. A military spokesman and the spokeswoman for Ethiopia's prime minister, Billene Seyoum, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wounded patients being treated at Ayder hospital in the regional capital, Mekele, told doctors and a nurse that a plane dropped a bomb on Togoga's marketplace. The patients included a 2-year-old child with "abdominal trauma" and a 6-year-old, the nurse said. An ambulance carrying a wounded baby to Mekele, almost 60 kilometres (37 miles) away by road, was blocked for two hours and the baby died on the way, the nurse added, speaking on condition of anonymity because of concerns about retaliation.

Hailu Kebede, foreign affairs head for the Salsay Woyane Tigray opposition party and who comes from Togoga, told the AP that one fleeing witness to the attack had counted more than 30 bodies in the remote village that's linked to Mekele in part by challenging stretches of dirt roads.

"It was horrific," said a staffer with an international aid group who told the AP he had spoken with a colleague and others at the scene. "We don't know if the jets were coming from Ethiopia or Eritrea. They are still looking for bodies by hand."

On Tuesday afternoon, a convoy of ambulances attempting to reach Togoga, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Mekele, was turned back by soldiers near Tukul, the health workers said. Several more ambulances were turned back later in the day and on Wednesday morning, but one group of medical workers reached the site on Tuesday evening via a different route.

"We have been asking, but until now we didn't get permission to go, so we don't know how many people are dead," said one of the doctors in Mekele.

Another doctor said the Red Cross ambulance he was travelling in on Tuesday while trying to reach the scene was shot at twice by Ethiopian soldiers, who held his team for 45 minutes before ordering them back to Mekele.

"We are not allowed to go," he said. "They told us whoever goes, they are helping the troops of the TPLF."

The TPLF refers to the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which governed Tigray until it was ousted by a federal government offensive in November. The subsequent fighting has killed thousands and forced more than 2 million people from their homes.

More than 25 of the wounded finally reached Ayder hospital later on Wednesday, a day after the airstrike, the regional health official said.

While the United Nations has said all sides have been accused of abuses in the Tigray conflict, Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers have been repeatedly accused by witnesses of looting and destroying health centres across the Tigray region and denying civilians access to care.

The European Union "strongly condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians" in Togoga, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday, calling it the latest in a "horrific series" of abuses committed in Tigray. He again called for an immediate cease-fire and urged the international community "to wake up and take action."

This month, humanitarian agencies warned that 350,00 people in Tigray are facing famine. Aid workers have said they have been repeatedly denied access to several parts of the region by soldiers.

The government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says it has nearly defeated the rebels. But forces loyal to the TPLF recently announced an offensive in parts of Tigray and have claimed a string of victories.

On Wednesday one of the former Tigray leaders, Getachew Reda, asserted that Tigray forces had shot down a C-130 transport plane carrying explosives, military officers and "Eritrean camouflage uniforms." The claim could not immediately be verified.

A resident in Adigrat, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) north of Mekele, said a group of Tigrayan fighters briefly entered the town on Tuesday, although he said it had since been retaken by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces. He said federal police had since been seen beating people in the centre of the town.

"Everybody is staying at home, there is no movement in the town," he said.

Renewed fighting was also reported in Edaga Hamus and Wukro, two towns that sit on the main road to Mekele.

The reports came as Ethiopia held federal and regional elections on Monday. The vote was peaceful in most parts of the country, although there was no voting in Tigray.

The vote was delayed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, heightening tensions between the federal government and the TPLF, which went ahead with its own regional election in September.