{"id":180102,"date":"2026-11-02T09:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T14:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/?p=180102"},"modified":"2026-11-02T09:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T14:45:47","slug":"unexploded-ordnance-from-an-abandoned-arms-depot-killed-eight-in-tigrays-yechila-families-and-hospital-tell-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zegabi.com\/articles\/180102","title":{"rendered":"Unexploded Ordnance From an Abandoned Arms Depot Killed Eight in Tigray\u2019s Yechila, Families and Hospital Tell BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eight people, among them children as young as two, were killed in the Tigray town of Yechila when unexploded ordnance that residents had carried from an abandoned arms depot to sell as scrap metal blew up outside a family home, relatives, residents and the head of the local hospital have told BBC Tigrinya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The blast happened on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in the Ma\u2019arey neighborhood of Yechila, the main town of the Abergele Yechila district in Central Tigray, as people who collect scrap metal were bringing a load on donkeys from the Ariqua depot to the buyers who work out of homes in the town, the BBC reported on Monday. Erdey Assefa, who runs Yechila hospital, told the BBC that 18 people were hurt, that three died before they could reach the hospital and that \u201c15 victims came to our hospital, and two of them died before any treatment could be given.\u201d He said the hospital sent 10 badly wounded patients on to Ayder Referral Hospital in Mekelle and to Abiy Addi hospital, people \u201cwhose hands and legs were cut off and whose bellies were struck\u201d by the blast, and that three of them died there, one within 20 minutes of reaching Mekelle. Five children who were playing at the door of their homes were among the dead, he said, aged three, five, six and 12. Residents said the five donkeys that carried the ordnance also died. Wazema Radio<\/a>, citing humanitarian workers and residents, reported on Oct. 29 that 10 people, including four children, were killed when unexploded ordnance blew up in the town, giving the date as Oct. 28.<\/p>\n

Adugna Gebremedhin lost his son, who was two years and two months old, and his nine year old son was wounded in the eye, neck and leg and is being treated at Abiy Addi. \u201cIt was the area where the children play in their neighborhood,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cWe rushed to Abiy Addi hospital in a panic. I came back from Abiy Addi carrying my child\u2019s body.\u201d A priest whose six year old daughter was killed told the BBC that his eldest daughter, who had recently started buying scrap metal, refused the load when it arrived. \u201cThey had brought iron that had not been fired, loaded on donkeys. She told them, \u2018This has bullets in it, I won\u2019t buy it.\u2019 In the middle of that, it got too heavy for the donkey, fell at the door of our house, and went off,\u201d he said. His wife, his son, his eldest daughter and her three year old son were badly hurt and taken to Ayder. \u201cSome of them were hurt inside the house when the blast cut through the door and came in. Many people were hurt; there are many dead and wounded,\u201d he said. The head priest of the district, Gebrehiwot Alene, said, \u201cWe buried five people in a single day,\u201d and that eight of the dead were buried at Kidane Mihret Cathedral.<\/p>\n

The Ariqua depot, north of Yechila, was used to store weapons by Tigray\u2019s forces and the former administration led by the TPLF and was guarded by local militia and security forces, the BBC said, and residents describe it as dating back to the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. After fighting broke out between Tigray\u2019s forces and the federal army and its partner, the Tigray Peace Force, the district administration and its security forces left the area, and the militia guarding Ariqua left the weapons behind on Oct. 22 \u201cand went to the bush,\u201d according to the BBC\u2019s sources. Large numbers of people from Yechila and from nearby Emba Israel and Saharti Samre then went to the depot to pull out metal and sell it to informal traders in the town. Satellite images from Planet Labs reviewed by the BBC show heavy explosions and fire at the depot on Oct. 22 that destroyed most of it by the next day. Sources told the BBC that people had begun taking apart unexploded shells as well as spent metal and that this was said to have caused the Oct. 22 fire, a cause the BBC said it could not confirm on its own. The area is now under the control of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, the BBC said, and there is no formal local administration, because the caretaker administration that Abiy Ahmed set up for Tigray has not yet reached the district.<\/p>\n

Gebrehiwot said elders and religious leaders had warned people again and again to stay away from the depot, without success. \u201cPeople we met in person would tell us, \u2018We said let us die while eating. Do you think we don\u2019t know this?\u2019\u201d he said. He said that on Oct. 26 community leaders asked the federal soldiers in the area to keep people out, that the soldiers tried to turn people back \u201ceven trying to beat them,\u201d and that people refused. He said the beating took on a political color and that the soldiers then stopped, telling them, \u201cWe want to save the people, but we do not want to be blamed for something we did not do.\u201d The blast came the next day. Gebrehiwot said the area had been hit by drought as well as war and asked everyone who could to help. Erdey said the price of scrap had fallen from 50 birr a kilogram to 15 as more people brought it in, so many were keeping it at home to sell later. \u201cThis explosive is stored in individual people\u2019s houses,\u201d he said. \u201cEach person has put fire in his own house.\u201d He asked aid groups, the current administration and others to remove the weapons left at the depot or guard it properly, and to search house to house for unexploded shells, because frightened families were now throwing suspect items outside, where children could find them and play with them.<\/p>\n

Wazema Radio reported that deaths from landmines and unexploded ordnance were rising in Tigray after international groups, including the United Nations Mine Action Service, halted demining and risk education when renewed fighting between federal troops and Tigray\u2019s forces broke out last month, and that drought and lost livelihoods were pushing people to take apart abandoned weapons for scrap.<\/p>\n

People from the area had been warning about the depot on X for days, though Zegabi could not confirm their figures. Yirga Alemu (@RTigrai2023<\/a>), who describes himself in his bio as a \u201csociologist| researcher| writer,\u201d wrote on Oct. 23 that \u201cbecause of drought induced humanitarian crisis civilians are risking their lives to collect scrap metals to survive,\u201d and that apart from the casualties of the day before, \u201c10 people have reportedly been killed by landmines in the Yechila Abergele.\u201d On the day of the blast he wrote<\/a> that \u201cunexploded explosives remain in the area and people are taking them to their homes.\u201d An account under the name Abrha_M (@Abrha_MG<\/a>), whose bio lists \u201c#Tigray\u201d and \u201cEconomics by Training,\u201d wrote later that day that six children had been killed and called on local and international aid groups to help clear the Ariqua depot, \u201cwhich is totally abandoned by all forces.\u201d Romhai (@Romhai_H<\/a>) wrote that \u201cunexploded devices still litter the area\u201d and that \u201cpeople are even taking them home.\u201d When the depot first went up on Oct. 22, an account under the name Daniel Daba (@dany_daba<\/a>) wrote in Amharic that the \u201cbomb and ammunition storage depot\u201d that \u201cthe Shabia-hired terrorist Debretsion group buried and left in the Ariqua Yechila area has completely exploded\u201d and \u201chas been completely put out of use.\u201d Zegabi\u2019s searches in Tigrigna found no other posts on the Oct. 27 blast.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n