Tensions in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have spiked sharply following a reported drone strike by federal government forces that hit a local secondary school, leaving multiple people dead and injured amid a rapidly unraveling 2022 peace accord, multiple sources familiar with the incident have confirmed to BBC Tigrinya.
The attack targeted Merewa Secondary School in the Raya Alamata district, a facility that was closed for winter break at the time of the strike. Accounts of casualties differ between local Tigrayan military representatives and the region’s district administration: Tigrayan military sources claim three of their fighters were killed immediately in the blast, with seven more wounded and transported to nearby medical facilities. In contrast, district governor Daniel Tamrat has stated one civilian was killed and four additional civilians were hurt, adding that a neighboring river — a critical source of drinking water for local communities — was also damaged in the strike. As of Tuesday, the Ethiopian national military has not issued any official response to requests for comment from the BBC. A source familiar with the operation also told the outlet that the strike was carried out using Turkish-made drones loaded with 12 explosive munitions, confirming that Tigrayan forces had been stationed on the school’s grounds at the time of the attack.
The deadly incident comes at a moment of escalating political crisis in Tigray, just two years after the Pretoria peace accord was signed between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), Tigray’s ruling political party, to end the brutal 2020–2022 civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. Warnings that the fragile peace could collapse entirely have grown louder in recent months, after the TPLF moved to dissolve the regional interim administration established under the 2022 agreement and reinstated its pre-war governing council earlier this year. Both the Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF have repeatedly accused one another of failing to uphold their commitments under the peace deal.
A further layer of complexity has been added by shifting regional alliances: Eritrea, which fought alongside Ethiopian federal forces during the original civil war, has been accused of switching its allegiance to the TPLF. Last month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the country’s parliament that the TPLF was actively preparing to restart full-scale conflict in a collaborative effort with Eritrea, a claim that Eritrean authorities have forcefully denied.
The drone strike triggered widespread panic among residents of Merewa, a small settlement located roughly 31 miles west of Alamata town. Local officials also reported that heavy weapons assaults have become increasingly common across the lowland plains of the border area, particularly near Waja on the boundary between the Tigray and Amhara regions. Low-intensity clashes between federal and Tigrayan forces first broke out in western Tigray on 1 August, and while violence has calmed in that area over recent weeks, analysts warn that the latest strike could reignite full-scale hostilities across multiple fronts.