Airstrike kills at least 56 people in Ethiopian camp for internally displaced

Aid workers report seeing children among the casualties

Displaced Tigrayan women at a reception centre in Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia (AP)

An airstrike has killed at least 56 people at a camp for internally displaced people in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray.

At least 30 others have been wounded, according to two aid workers.

One, who visited Shire Shul General Hospital, where the injured are being treated, said the camp hosts many elderly women and children.

“They told me the bombs came at midnight,” the worker said. “It was completely dark and they couldn’t escape.”

The aid workers said the number of casualties has been confirmed by local authorities.

As yet there is no independent confirmation of the attack, which reportedly took place late on Friday night in Dedebit, in the northwest of the region near the border with Eritrea.

Government forces have been fighting rebels in Tigray for over a year in a war that has claimed thousands of lives. Clashes on the ground have temporarily halted, but airstrikes on rebel positions continue.

Three people, including two children, were killed in an airstrike on a refugee camp in the region on Wednesday.

The government has previously denied targeting civilians.

The war entered a new phase in late December, when Tigray forces retreated amid a military offensive and Ethiopian forces said they would not advance further.

Before the latest strike, at least 146 people have been killed and 213 injured in air strikes in Tigray since 18 October, according to a document prepared by aid agencies.