Ethiopia: at least 40 army allies killed in drone strike

Ethiopian forces killed around forty fighters from their own side in a drone strike in the insurgency-hit Amhara region on January 15, a nurse and a local official told AFP on Tuesday.

Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous region with about 23 million people, has been gripped by an insurgency since April 2023, after the federal government moved to disarm local ethnic militias known as the Fano.

The army regularly carries out drone strikes, but the January 15 attack in the Waghemira area hit a pro-government camp, the local official told AFP by phone, speaking on condition of anonymity.

According to the official, the army informed local authorities the following day that the strike was a “mistake”, even though the drone had reportedly hovered over the camp for some time before firing.

“I immediately saw smoke and flames… I rushed to the scene… I saw body parts of the dead and wounded people writhing in pain,” the official said, adding that 36 people were killed instantly and two others later died in hospital.

A healthcare worker who treated several of the wounded at the scene, Abebaw Zinabu, told AFP that “more than 40” people were killed.

“How could an attack be carried out by our own forces on a well-known camp that has for six years housed militia members defending the government, fighting in deserts and valleys, far from their families and loved ones?” the official asked.

An army spokesperson told AFP they had not “received any information” about the incident.

Ethiopia is facing multiple insurgencies, particularly in the Amhara and Oromia regions, as well as rising tensions with neighbouring Eritrea.

According to conflict monitoring group ACLED, at least 669 people have been killed in more than 70 drone strikes in Amhara since 2023.