A suspected air strike at the weekend in Ethiopia's Amhara region killed at least 26 people, a hospital official said on Monday, as a state-appointed rights group detailed widespread killings of civilians since fighting broke out this month.
Federal forces managed late last week to push Fano militiamen out of most major towns in Amhara, but clashes continue in other parts of the region, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in a statement.
The fighting—which has been fueled by Fano accusations that the federal government is trying to weaken Amhara's defenses—is Ethiopia's biggest security crisis since a two-year civil war in the northern Tigray region ended last November.
The hospital official said four people died at the hospital and another 22 either at the scene or on their way to hospital. Fifty-five more are being treated for injuries sustained in the explosion, the official said.
In Amhara's capital Bahir Dar, civilians were killed on the streets or outside their houses, EHRC said, adding there were credible reports of "many civilian casualties" in Gondar—the region's second biggest city—and extrajudicial killings by security forces in Shewa Robit.
In Addis Ababa—the capital—there have also been widespread arrests of civilians of ethnic Amhara origin, it said.
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