Ethiopian government using Turkish drones to bomb civilians, new report
2 min readEthiopian government is using Turkish drones to bomb civilians according to a new evidence report.
According to Politico, photographs collected by humanitarian workers showed missile pieces from an attack that killed 58 civilians sheltering in a school.
The photographs were examined by the Dutch NGO PAX, which identified the weapon as a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone, confirming long-held suspicions that Turkey has been delivering arms to Addis Ababa in support of its onslaught against Tigray rebels.
“The arrival of Iranian, Chinese, and now Turkish armed drones appears to have shifted the tide in Ethiopia’s favor, placing Tigrayans on the defensive and driving them to the negotiating table,” PAX stated.
In November 2020, a war started out between Tigray rebels and the Ethiopian government.
Many of people have been killed, many of whom were unarmed citizens, and thousands more have been detained as a result of the war.
According to PAX, satellite photographs from earlier this month “confirmed” the presence of TB2 armed drones at the Harar Meda military airfield in Bishoftu, close south of Ethiopia’s capital.
The newly obtained photographs add to evidence that Turkey is profiting from Ethiopia’s conflict, in blatant violation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which restricts the trade in conventional weapons like drones and was signed by Ankara in 2013, according to representatives from the NGO.
Erdogan’s son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar works as chief technology officer of Baykar, the accused drone maker.
According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Turkey has been aggressively expanding its drone export sector, generating the low-cost yet effective “weapon of choice for many regimes.”
According to Reuters, US authorities are concerned about Turkey’s sale of armed drones to Ethiopian government, with two sources familiar with the situation saying “there was accumulating proof” of the trade.
Politico inquired on the sale of armaments to the East African country with Turkish government spokespeople in Ankara, but received no answer.
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