August 10, 2021 (Walta) – The Head of Afar Children, Youth and Women’s Affairs Bureau, Ayisha Yasin, told Walta that more than 200 civilians has been killed by heavy artillery shelling TPLF forces have fired on Gale Koma district of Afar Region last Thursday.
Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has been designated as a terrorist group by Ethiopian House of People Representatives.
TPLF has ruled Ethiopia through iron feast for almost three decades before turning a rebel group designated as terrorist. TPLF was a rebel group before capturing state power in 1991.
According to Ayisha, the targeted civilians were sheltered in a school serving as an IDP Center located near a warehouse stocking food aid.
“The warehouse stocks the aid needs of more than 30 thousand people,” Ayisha said.
“200 bodies have been found so far while more than 48 are still missing,” she added.
Out of the 200 bodies found so far, 107 are children (48 of them girls and 59 is boys), 32 women and 61 are male (youngsters and above) , the office head told Walta.
“The victims are civilians who have no role in the ongoing conflict. What happened in Gale Koma is pure ethnic cleansing,” said Ayisha.
More than 30 people who sustained different injuries are currently receiving treatment at Dubti Hospital, she explained.
On the other hand, the Head of the Afar Region President Office, Golbe Sile, said that TPLF has been trying to attack the region in two fronts; Yalo and Uwa.
“The enemy force has been weakened in recent attacks. As a result of that, it is rotating its remaining forces,” he said.
“Since the enemy fire heavy artillery on areas occupied by civilian resident, more than eighty percent of the causality so far is civilians,” he added.
According to Golbe, more than 30 TPLF fighters have surrendered while hundreds of them have been incapacitated yesterday.
As a result of that, ‘’our special force and militia have seized strategic areas,” he concluded.