At least 64 killed in Ethiopian airstrike on crowded Tigray market

An Ethiopian airstrike on a crowded marketplace in the war-torn Tigray region has killed at least 64 people and injured 200 others, according to healthcare workers.

The attack, which hit a village about 20 miles from the regional capital Mekelle on Tuesday, is one of the deadliest so far recorded in the conflict.

Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace-prize winning prime minister, sent the federal army into the mountainous region of Tigray eight months ago to oust the powerful regional government.

His forces have since been widely accused of mass killing, gang rape and ethnic cleansing.

Survivors of the bombing and health workers told the AFP news agency that explosions hit the busy market in Togoga at the height of trading, killing and injuring dozens, including children.

On Thursday, the Ethiopian military denied that it had hit any civilians in the airstrike, claiming instead that it was targeting combatants wearing civilian clothes who were celebrating in the town.

However, images from the site of the attack show women and children receiving emergency treatment for shrapnel and blast wounds.

The US State Department has said that there were also "credible reports that security forces denied medical personnel access to the victims", and described the incident as a "terrible attack" and the conduct of security forces as "heinous and absolutely unacceptable".

The bombing comes as Ethiopian forces are under attack from thousands of advancing Tigrayan Defence Force (TDF) troops, and has raised fears that they may respond by indiscriminately bombing civilian targets.

"There’s a fear that vengeful defeated commanders - and their humiliated political masters - will unleash bombing raids and impose a brutal blockade to starve Tigray into desolation," said Alex de Waal, one of the foremost international experts on the Horn of Africa. "If that happens, a humanitarian tragedy will turn into a regional war of destruction."

In the last week, the TDF’s guerilla fighters have made major advances, capturing towns along the way to Mekelle after weeks of stalemate, multiple sources with links to high command have told The Telegraph, although this information could not be independently verified.

Unconfirmed videos and images posted on social media also show hundreds of captured Ethiopian soldiers being marched through rugged terrain by cheering Tigrayan soldiers sporting looted weapons.

The news of the deadly airstrike and renewed fighting comes as Ethiopia goes through long-awaited national elections, which Mr Abiy has described as the country's first free and democratic poll.

However, because of the civil war in Tigray, ethnic violence and logistical issues, four of Ethiopia’s 10 regions did not vote on Monday. Several opposition parties also abstained because their members had been arrested.

While campaigning over the weekend, Mr Abiy brushed off reports of starvation when he was challenged by a BBC reporter in a rare interview, saying there was no hunger in Tigray.

Earlier this month, the United Nation’s top humanitarian official said that a famine was taking place in Tigray and about 350,000 people were facing starvation, while 5m people of the region's 6m population were in need of life-saving aid.

The Telegraph understands the announcement that a famine was underway came after weeks of negotiations with the Ethiopian government in Addis Ababa, which sought to prevent one being declared.