target practise

Ethiopia’s drone wars: Iran, China and Turkey deliver the air power behind Abiy’s resurgence

By Fred Harter

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Posted on January 25, 2022 06:21

Since August, Ethiopia’s military has assembled a diverse fleet of Iranian, Chinese and Turkish drones. It has proved pivotal to the fortunes of Abiy in the field, routing the TPLF at the battle of Gashena. Now, there are signs that these drones are being targeted at other insurgencies around the country.

On 10th January, during a call with US President Joe Biden, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, discussed the possibility of ceasefire talks in his country’s civil war following the withdrawal of Tigray rebel forces to their northern home region in late December.

The same day people, a drone strike hit a flour mill near the town of Mai Tsebri in western Tigray, killing at least 17 people. Days earlier a separate air attack left 59 civilians dead when it hit a camp for displaced people near Dedebit, another town in Tigray.

The two strikes are part of a broader air campaign against the embattled Tigray region that killed 108 civilians in the first two weeks of 2022, according to an official United Nations tally.

An aid official told The Africa Report that the true figure could be higher since humanitarian teams have been unable to verify reports of casualties in remote locations due to

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