Airstrike hits Ethiopia's Tigray following ceasefire offer by rebels

An airstrike wounded at least one person on Tuesday in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, a hospital official said, two days after Tigrayan forces said they were ready for a ceasefire with the federal government.

The strike hit the business campus of Mekelle University and Dimitsi Woyane TV station, which is run by the regional government, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive officer at Ayder Referral Hospital. He cited a witness who arrived with a man wounded in the strike.

Getachew Reda, a spokesperson for the regional government, said on Twitter that the business campus had been hit by drones.

Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to requests for comment.

The airstrike is the third to hit Mekelle since the nearly two-year-old conflict resumed late last month after a five-month ceasefire. Each side blames the other for the renewed fighting.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs Tigray, said on Sunday it was ready for a ceasefire without preconditions and would accept an African Union-led peace process.

Diplomats described the offer as a potential breakthrough. The Ethiopian government has not yet officially responded.

Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed as the AU's chief mediator, met with the American envoy to the Horn of Africa region, Mike Hammer, on Monday, Djibouti's former ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idriss Farah, who was also present, said in a tweet.

SS