A drone strike hit Merewa Secondary School in Tigray region's Raya Alamata district on Monday, with Tigrayan military sources saying three of their fighters died instantly and seven were taken to hospital. The school was on a holiday break at the time. The Ethiopian federal government has not confirmed or denied the incident as of this report.
A separate, conflicting account came from Daniel Tamrat, the district governor, who said one civilian was killed and four others wounded, and that a nearby river where residents fetched water was also struck. The Ethiopian army has not responded to a request for comment on either version of events. The federal government's continued silence on strike reports leaves the public record dependent on Tigrayan sources and local officials whose accounts diverge, with no independent verification available.
The strike site, Merewa, sits 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Alamata town. An unnamed source said Tigrayan forces were stationed at the secondary school at the time of the attack, and that the school itself was empty of students.
> "It is winter and so there is no school now."
The same source claimed the attack involved Turkish drones carrying 12 bombs, though this detail has not been independently corroborated and was attributed to a single unnamed source. Local officials separately alleged that heavy weapons attacks have repeatedly struck the plain area near Waja, at the Tigray-Amhara regional border, though no figures were provided for these earlier incidents.
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No party has claimed responsibility for Monday's strike.
The strike comes amid what sources describe as a worsening political crisis in Tigray this year, with fears growing that full-scale conflict could resume more than three years after the November 2022 Pretoria Agreement ended the 2020-2022 war between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF has since removed the interim administration established under that accord and reinstated its pre-war council, a move that has sharpened tensions with Addis Ababa. Both the federal government and TPLF accuse each other of failing to implement the peace deal that ended the war.
Last month, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told parliament that the TPLF was preparing for renewed conflict in collaboration with Eritrea, an allegation Eritrea denies. Eritrea, which fought alongside the Ethiopian military during the 2020-2022 war, has separately been accused of changing its allegiance to Tigray. Fighting broke out in western Tigray on August 1 between federal and Tigrayan forces before subsiding, though it could reignite on other fronts.
Sources: BBC Africa.