The army has clashed with local militias with the aim of disbanding them, and last week the military forcibly retook key towns in Amhara.
The airstrike hit the community center of Finote Selam on Sunday, said the health official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The official said 22 people died at the scene and several of the injured had to be amputated.
Two residents said the airstrike targeted a truck carrying civilians returning from delivering food to fighters from the militia known as Fano. Your version could not be verified.
A federal government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We heard a loud noise coming from the sky,” said a local teacher. “When it fell, many people died and were injured.”
The state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission noted Monday “credible reports of attacks and shelling” in Finote Selam and other towns in Amhara “causing many civilian casualties.” He also said Amhara regional officials were targeted, with some killed, “resulting in the temporary collapse of the local state structure in many areas.”
At the beginning of the month, the Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency in the Amhara region. The Fano militia have fought alongside Ethiopian military forces for two years in the neighboring Tigray region, which ended with a peace deal last November.
Lawyers and witnesses say authorities are carrying out mass arrests of hundreds, even thousands, of people in the Ethiopian capital amid the Amhara riots.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
