Authorities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have accused the federal government of carrying out a drone strike near the regional capital, Mekelle, amid rising tensions between the two sides.
The Tigray authorities said in a statement posted on social media that a drone struck a farmer training centre in Dandera village, about 15 kilometres outside Mekelle.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the region, said no one was injured in the attack but provided no further details.
However, a local priest who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said at least one person was killed and two others may have been wounded.
“I saw one fighter killed in the strike being carried away in a vehicle,” the priest said, adding that the projectile landed on farmland near a school and a watering point used by farmers for their livestock.
The Ethiopian federal army has not commented on the allegation.
Tensions between Tigray and the federal government have intensified in recent weeks, with both sides reportedly deploying forces along the regional border.
The two parties have also traded accusations of seeking to provoke a fresh conflict, less than four years after a peace agreement ended a devastating two-year civil war in northern Ethiopia.
The conflict, which began in November 2020, killed at least 600,000 people, according to estimates cited by international officials.
The latest allegations have raised renewed concerns that the fragile peace in Tigray could be threatened by escalating military tensions between the regional authorities and Addis Ababa.
