NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) 鈥� New airstrikes hit the capital of region, residents said Wednesday, as video showed injured people with bloodied faces 小蓝视频 rushed to vehicles and thick black smoke rising in the sky. Ethiopia's government said it targeted facilities to make and repair weapons, which a spokesman for the rival Tigray forces denied.
Meanwhile, the United Nations told The Associated Press it is slashing by more than half its Tigray presence as an Ethiopian government blockade halts humanitarian aid efforts and from lack of food.
The war in Africa鈥檚 second-most populous country has ground on for nearly a year between Ethiopian and allied forces and the Tigray ones who long dominated the national government before a falling-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
There was no immediate word of deaths from the new airstrikes in Mekele, reported by Kindeya Gebrehiwot of the Tigray external affairs office and confirmed by a resident and a humanitarian worker. One resident said five people were injured, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
鈥淚ndeed there have been airstrikes in Mekele today,鈥� Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu told the AP, saying they targeted facilities at the Mesfin Industrial Engineering site that Tigray forces use to make and repair heavy weapons. Legesse said the airstrikes had 鈥渘o intended harm to civilians.鈥�
鈥淣ot at all,鈥� Kindeya with the Tigray forces told the AP, calling the site a garage 鈥渨ith many old tires. That is why it is still blazing.鈥�
Amit Abrha, who said she was a worker at the site, said she didn't hear the airstrike coming and collapsed when the attack occurred. 鈥淧eople picked me up. And when the explosions continued, I went out and saw a person that I know injured and on the ground,鈥� she said in video footage obtained by the AP, as the smoke billowed behind her and fellow residents tried to control the flames.
The attack came two days after Ethiopia's air force in Mekele that a witness said killed three children. The air force said communications towers and equipment were attacked. Mekele hadn't seen fighting since June, when Tigray forces retook much of the region in a dramatic turn in the war.
The airstrikes have caused fresh panic in a city under siege, where doctors and others have described running out of medicines and other basic needs.
Despite pleas from the U.N. and others to allow basic services and humanitarian aid to Tigray鈥檚 6 million people, Ethiopia鈥檚 government this week called those expectations 鈥渁bsurd鈥� while the Tigray forces now fight in the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced there, widening the deadly crisis.
鈥淎lthough not all movements have yet taken place, there will probably be a reduction from nearly 530 to around 220 U.N. staff on the ground in Tigray,鈥� U.N. humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu told the AP. The decision is 鈥渄irectly linked to the operation constraints we have been faced with over the last months鈥� along with the volatile security situation, he said.
The lack of fuel and cash because of the government鈥檚 blockade on Tigray 鈥渉as made it extremely challenging for humanitarians to sustain life-saving activities鈥� at the time they鈥檙e needed most, Abreu added.
Some 1,200 humanitarian workers including the reduced U.N. presence will remain in Tigray, he said.
The AP in recent weeks has confirmed the first starvation deaths in Tigray under the government blockade.
Humanitarian workers are also trying to reach the displaced and often hungry people in the Amhara and Afar regions, where communications blackouts and active fighting challenge efforts to confirm claims by the warring sides. Witnesses have told the AP that some Tigray forces are killing civilians, the latest abuses in a war marked by gang-rapes, mass expulsions and widespread detentions of ethnic Tigrayans.
Cara Anna, The Associated Press
