Drone Strike Kills at Least 12 Gathering Spilled Grain in Tigray’s Rama, Witnesses Tell BBC and AFP

October 31, 2026

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A drone strike on Friday morning killed at least 12 people in Rama, a town in Tigray’s Central Zone near the Eritrean border, as they gathered sorghum spilled from a truck that a drone had hit the night before, two witnesses and a hospital source told BBC Amharic.

One of the witnesses told the BBC that a truck bringing sorghum into Rama was struck at about 10 o’clock on Thursday night, damaging only the vehicle and its load, and that on Friday morning the owner called his workers and people willing to help gather up the scattered grain. “While the people were gathered helping him, it made no sound. It came straight and dropped it right on top of them,” he said of the drone. “All of those who were hurt are young people under 25.” He said 10 people died on the spot and two more died among five wounded people who were being carried to Axum for treatment on a three wheeled cargo vehicle. “It is horrifying. We had trouble even identifying the dead. We buried them by guessing, saying this one might be this person, this person was on the truck,” he told the BBC in Amharic.

A second witness, who asked not to be named for his safety, told the BBC that 13 civilians died in Friday’s strike and two more of those taken to hospital died, and that many of the dead were day laborers, some of whom worked at the town’s bus station. A hospital source told the BBC on Friday afternoon that about 25 victims had been brought in, 12 of them already dead on arrival, and that five of the survivors had been referred to Adwa and Axum. “The situation was very bad. The bodies of the dead were burned… We had trouble identifying the remains. We called their families and showed them, and we identified some by what was left of their bodies and others by their ID cards,” the source said.

A resident told AFP by phone that a drone hit a private vehicle carrying sorghum in the center of Rama at about 9 p.m. on Thursday and that “this morning, people were collecting the scattered grain when another strike hit them.” He put the dead at 13, while a medical source at a nearby hospital could confirm only 11 and said it had heard of two other victims. “It was very sad and shocking. There was another drone strike yesterday targeted armed fighters, and that did not surprise us. But today’s attack was heartbreaking because it hit young civilians,” another resident told the agency. Addis Standard, citing a local source who wrote to it by email, reported that 12 civilians were killed instantly and that some of the badly wounded had no transport to reach a hospital.

Residents say Friday’s strike was the worst of three days of strikes on the town. BBC Tigrinya reported, citing residents and witnesses, that strikes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday hit what they called civilian places in Rama Adi Arbaete and its surroundings, among them a house and a restaurant said to belong to a resident named Hagos Tsegay and an area near a Bank of Abyssinia branch whose building was damaged, and that by their account at least 18 civilians were killed over the three days and more than 10 wounded. One of the BBC Amharic witnesses said a strike on the Hagos restaurant at about noon on Wednesday killed the owner and another person as people sat eating lunch. “There was no military target of any kind in the area,” a resident told BBC Tigrinya, and residents said they had to use horse drawn carts to carry the wounded and the dead to hospitals in and around Adwa because there were too few vehicles and ambulances. The BBC said it had not independently confirmed the toll or the claim that civilian places were targeted.

No one has claimed the strikes. BBC Amharic said the government had issued no statement and that its attempts to reach the federal government and defense officials were unsuccessful, and AFP said the Ethiopian army did not respond to its requests for comment. ACLED, which tracks conflicts around the world, said the Friday strike, which it believes was carried out by the Ethiopian National Defense Force, hit at about 8 a.m. local time and killed 12 civilians, DW Amharic reported, and DW said the federal government in Addis Ababa had neither confirmed nor denied the strike by the time of its Friday evening bulletin. ACLED also said the army and its ally, the Tigray Peace Force, had taken control of several areas of Tembien in Central Tigray and that drones were carrying out surveillance there, DW reported.

Rama is the main town of Mereb Leke woreda, close to the Eritrean border, and BBC Amharic noted that the Tigrayan forces fighting the Ethiopian Government had been said to be mostly in areas along that border, while residents of Rama said there was no fighting and no movement of armed men in the area when the strikes came. BBC Tigrinya said it could not independently verify the military situation around the town. On Monday a senior Tigrayan commander, Gen. Yohannes, known as John Medid, surrendered after he was surrounded in Rama woreda, the Tigray Peace Force said, as Zegabi reported.

Salsay Weyane Tigray, a party active in the region, said in a statement that 12 people were killed in a drone strike on civilians in Rama, called the attack “absolutely unacceptable” and demanded an end to mass attacks on civilians, BBC Amharic reported. AFP said multiple drone strikes in northern Ethiopia since Thursday had killed at least 25 civilians, including children, a count that includes the strike on the Jari camp for displaced people in South Wollo, as Zegabi reported. AFP noted that the Ethiopian federal government has used its large supply of drones to win a decisive advantage in the fighting but has been accused of indiscriminate attacks that have killed civilians.

On X, Tigrigna speaking users posted about the strike from Friday morning. Desta Haileselassie Hagos (@DestaHHagos), whose bio says he is Tigrayan and manages the site tigraygenocide.com, asked anyone with “full information about today’s drone massacre carried out against our civilian kin in Rama,” or about killings elsewhere in Tigray, who wanted to speak to international human rights defenders to contact him privately or by email. The account A.B.P.F (@ABPF14) wrote in Tigrigna that “targeting innocents must stop” and that “we condemn the drone bombing carried out in Rama,” and Selam Tigray (@TigraySelm77126) wrote that “the genocide that was started, whether by the Prosperity [Party] or by Shabia,” using a common name for Eritrea’s ruling party, “is still continuing,” adding, “Stop drone bombing that targets peaceful people! Rama is weeping.” Temesgen (@temesgen_kahsay) wrote in English that “an Ethiopian government drone strike kills a dozen of civilians in Rama.” None of these posts independently establishes who carried out the strike or how many people died.

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