Afar Pastoralists Development Association (APDA), one of the oldest NGOs in the region, confirmed 6 children “burned to death” by TPLF shelling, targeting Zone 4 of Afar state. The TPLF Tigrayan organization, which previously dominated Ethiopia for decades, has resumed war after rejecting the peace talks offered by the federal government.
The news comes as locals reported at least 2 more Afar children and their mother were killed by TPLF artillery after the Tigrayan rebels restarted war this week, breaking five months of humanitarian ceasefire initiated by the Ethiopian government. Afar human rights activists say mass displacement has already restarted in Yalo and Gulina districts which are the most in proximity and in danger from Tigrayan shelling. APDA has confirmed the displacements and has pleaded for more resources to support the new IDPs.
Meanwhile, after a federal government airstrike on TPLF military targets in Mekelle, rebel-affiliated media claimed civilians were also targeted, including 2 Tigrayan children and other civilians. The claim could not be independently verified but TPLF-media footage showed a gruesome image of one man with a hole in his body.
Minutes later, the graphic video was quickly distributed online by the Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom, who also doubles as an executive leader of the TPLF organization. The unethical sharing of this graphic image without a warning has reportedly stunned some UN officials, even those who tolerated Adhanom’s openly partisan views in favor of his ethnic rebels.
Supporters of TPLF say Dr Tedros breaking the WHO code of conduct to unethically share the gruesome image was a political decision and a necessary diversion as he was under heavy pressure to condemn the latest war crime by his organization which was just accused by World Food Program (WFP) of looting 570,000 liters of fuel designated for humanitarian aid.
Dr. Tedros’s TPLF has justified the “massive fuel theft” due to its military priorities, despite thousands of Tigrayans facing starvation in remote areas of Tigray and what the UN dubbed potential “man-made famine.”
UNDERSTAND THE WAR IN ETHIOPIA
The war in northern Ethiopia began in November 2020 after what TPLF leaders admitted was a deadly “pre-emptive” strike on federal authorities, followed by the massacre of Welkait Amharas in Maikadra by the Tigrayans.
IS COLLATERAL DAMAGE WEAPONIZED?
Human rights activists have long claimed TPLF has a record of using civilians & civilian infrastructures as a human shield and subsequently for propaganda. During its 1980s insurgency, TPLF preferred to utilize markets as human shield, while it used religious installations during its latest wars. Seven months before starting the insurrection in 2020 , AFP media reported that TPLF rebels “took over an elementary school…digging trenches behind classrooms and storing weapons in what was once the principal’s office.”
