Evidence of civilian bombing in Ethiopia points to Turkish drone – POLITICO

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NAIROBI — Newly obtained photographs of missile fragments provide the first physical evidence that Ethiopia used a Turkish drone this month in an attack that killed 58 civilian refugees at a school.

Turkey’s growing prowess as a drone exporter is being called national pride by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but any indication that a Turkish plane targeted civilians during Ethiopia’s 15-month war will intensify international pressure on the NATO country to stop arming Addis Ababa.

Drones are fast becoming a decisive weapon in the conflict and have helped Ethiopian government forces turn the tide against rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which ruled the country for nearly three decades before 2018. Military experts say that Ethiopia does not buy unmanned aerial vehicles. only from Turkey, but also from Iran, the United Arab Emirates and China.

Aid workers in the northern Tigray region provided POLITICO with photographs showing shrapnel from a laser-guided bomb used in a strike on the town of Dedebit late on the night of January 7. The attack hit a school housing internally displaced people, including children. , according to aid workers and Tigrayan leaders.

Studying these photographs, military experts from the Dutch non-governmental organization PAX and Amnesty International identified the weapon used as a MAM-L bomb fitted to a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone. The photographs were taken on January 13 after aid workers extracted the missile fragments from the debris. Bayraktar drones are made by a company whose son-in-law Erdoğan is a senior executive.

A photograph taken by aid workers January 13 after the extraction of missile fragments from the scene of a bomb attack in the town of Dedebit on January 7 that killed 58 people. The fragments were placed on old notes.

Turkish diplomats stationed in Ethiopia did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Questions about the use of the MAM-L ammunition posed to Turkish government spokespersons in Ankara also went unanswered. Billene Seyoum, spokesman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and Ethiopian military spokesman Colonel Getnet Adane did not respond to email and text requests for comment.

Ethiopia’s use of drones in its war with the Tigray region has killed more than 300 civilians, according to data compiled by aid workers in the Tigray region who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the attacks. information. The UN reported a series of drone strikes as recently as January 15 in the Tigrayan towns of Maychew, Korem and Samre, killing 12 other civilians and injuring several others.

Unlike Ethiopian government forces, Tigrayan fighters do not have drones.

The attacks drew criticism from US President Joe Biden and a warning from the United Nations that they could be a serious breach of international law.

Turkey’s role is increasingly attracting global attention. A spokesman for the US State Department said its former special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, spoke about the use of armed drones in Ethiopia and the “risk of civilian harm that entails” during visits to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey in December.

“He emphasized that the United States was sending a clear signal to all outside parties engaged on all sides of the conflict that now is the time for all outside actors to push to negotiate and end the war,” the doorman said. -word.

Expert witnesses

Wim Zwijnenburg, humanitarian disarmament project manager at PAX, who identified the MAM-L weapon, said Turkey couldn’t get its hands off it.

“There are very good reasons to believe that these drones should never have been exported,” he said, noting that Turkey is a signatory to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which states that A risk assessment should be made on the potential for harm before a sale is made. (While Turkey signed the pact in 2013, it did not ratify it.)

Zwijnenburg also stressed the need for information on the potential involvement of Turkish personnel in the deployment of weapons.

“Because it is a technology that requires a lot of maintenance and piloting, Turkey could be held directly responsible if there is a constant pattern of drone strikes used against civilians and the Turkish crew is in the field to perform maintenance on the drones,” he said.

Spokespersons for the Turkish Presidency and Foreign Ministry did not respond to POLITICO’s questions about whether Turkish citizens were involved in piloting the drones or helping train people to do so. use of drones.

While Ankara has not commented on the use of Turkish drones, Zwijnenburg said satellite images acquired by his organization identified a TB2 drone in Bahir Dar, in the Tigray border region, on Dec. ‘last year. Identification was possible due to the unique dimensions of the aircraft’s wingspan and length. This location would allow the unmanned aircraft to hit several targets in Tigray, including Dedebit.

A photograph of what the Dutch non-governmental organization PAX identifies as a Turkish drone at an Ethiopian air force base in Bahir Dar on December 16, 2021.

Brian Castner, weapons adviser for Amnesty International’s crisis team, acknowledged that a Turkish drone and missile had been used. “The wing bolts are distinctive on many of these drone-launched munitions, and this is definitely a MAM-L,” he said.

Questions about the Dedebit attack addressed to Baykar, the manufacturer of the TB2 drone, and Roketsan, the Turkish manufacturer of the MAM-L missile identified in the images, went unanswered.

Turkey’s Strategic Export Engine

Drone exports have become a mainstay of Turkey’s foreign policy strategy. In 2020, during a 44-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan gained the upper hand thanks to drones supplied by Turkey and Israel.

Military analysts have seen the conflict as an example of Turkey flexing its geopolitical muscle against Russia. Indeed, last month President Vladimir Putin criticized Turkey’s decision to arm Ukraine with attack drones, according to a statement from the Kremlin.

In August, Abiy and Erdoğan signed cooperation agreements in the water, financial and military sectors.

The drones are manufactured by the Baykar company where Selçuk Bayraktar, the son-in-law of President Erdoğan, works as chief technology officer. Africa has become a key export market for Baykar after sales to Morocco and Tunisia in September last year. Baykar did not respond to a list of questions about the strike in Ethiopia.

Somalia, where Ankara already has a military base, Nigeria and Angola have also expressed interest in striking a drone deal, according to two European diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity as they are not not allowed to speak publicly.

“Everywhere I go in Africa, everyone asks about drones,” Erdoğan said in remarks by the Anadolu News Agency after a visit to Angola, Nigeria and Togo in October, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.

More broadly, Turkey has repeatedly expressed concern over the conflict in Ethiopia, with Ankara officially calling for “an immediate ceasefire for the urgent cessation of violence” and reiterating its support for the establishment of a dialogue between all parties in a Press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on November 5.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu echoed Turkey’s willingness to provide support and encouraged talks during a conversation with his Ethiopian counterpart Demeke Mekonnen later in the month, according to reports made to Anadolu public agency.

“Turkey will continue to support efforts aimed at preserving peace, serenity and stability in Ethiopia,” the country said in a November 5 statement.

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