Wire reporting: (AP, via The Seattle Times)

The World Health Organization's director-general said Monday that fighting and drone strikes in northern Ethiopia are pushing a fragile health system toward collapse^1,2.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the conflict between Tigray-region rebels and the government in Addis Ababa had killed several civilians in recent days and strained medical facilities^1,2.

Al Jazeera, citing Reuters sources involved in a rescue operation, said at least 15 people, several of them children, died in drone strikes on a camp for displaced civilians in the Amhara region on Friday¹. The Associated Press report carried by The Seattle Times did not include that figure and said Tedros gave no casualty totals or dates for the attacks he described².

Tedros said children were among those reported killed at the Jaari 2 displacement camp in Amhara and that several people were killed while seeking food in Rama, in neighboring Tigray^1,2. The AP account said those killed included a newborn². He did not identify the perpetrators^1,2.

He said hospitals in the north face shortages of health workers, medicines and equipment, ambulance services are severely limited, and insecurity is blocking delivery of medical supplies^1,2. WHO and other United Nations agencies are working to deliver additional supplies, he said, and he called for civilians to be protected and for health workers and products to reach those in need^1,2.

Both reports said renewed fighting has effectively shattered a November 2022 peace agreement between the federal government and Tigray rebel forces^1,2.

The AP report said no government response addressing the reported attacks was immediately available². It noted that Ethiopian authorities have previously accused Tedros, an ethnic Tigrayan and former Ethiopian health and foreign minister, of political bias, and that he has said he was speaking without bias².

The AP account also described other violence, including Ethiopia's Orthodox Church saying at least 60 Orthodox Christians were killed in Oromia, and U.S. Ambassador Ervin J. Massinga condemning reported targeted killings in Arsi zone². It said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed posted that government leaders were undergoing military training at Hurso².