At least 7,000 schools in northern Ethiopia were partially or fully damaged by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a senior government official said Monday.
Thousands of academic institutes in the states of Tigray, Amhara and Afar have been damaged by TPLF fighters, Education Minister Getahun Mekuria said in an address at a conference.
Over 200 internally displaced people, mostly children and women, slaughtered when Tigray rebels shelled a health center and school in the #Afar region of #Ethiopia. pic.twitter.com/tOmPBH1QRv
— Newsflash GBA (@GbaNewsflash) August 11, 2021
Since the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral cease-fire on June 29 and pulled out troops from the Tigray region, the TPLF has encroached large areas in neighboring Amhara and Afar states.
“In the past month alone, 455 schools catering to some 88,000 students have been destroyed by the TPLF,” Getahun said, according to local broadcaster Fana.
“Some 140 schools and two training colleges for teachers have also been fully or partially destroyed,” he added.
Ethiopian recruits join fight against Tigray rebels https://t.co/OBc5ZDJdEg
— africanews ? (@africanews) August 25, 2021
The minister also posted a message on Twitter saying that “more than 1.42 million students have been out of school already (in #Tigray) or will be out of school (in Afar, Amhara).”
The Ethiopian government and the TPLF, which ruled Ethiopia for 27 years until 2018, have been fighting since November last year.
According to official estimates, more than 2 million people have been internally displaced in Ethiopia, while tens of thousands have fled into neighboring Sudan.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
