The International Rescue Committee said on Saturday that one of its employees was killed and another injured in an attack in Ethiopia's war-torn Tigray region, APA reports citing AFP.
"The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is saddened to confirm the reports of the death of one of our colleagues who died from injuries sustained during an attack yesterday in Shire Town in the Tigray region of Ethiopia," the US-based humanitarian organisation said.
"Another IRC staff member was also injured in the attack, and two other civilians were reportedly killed and three injured as a result of the incident." The employee was "delivering life saving humanitarian aid to women and children".
"Aid workers and civilians should never be a target," said the IRC, which helps people affected by humanitarian crises.
Shire, in northwest Tigray, has been bombarded by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces for several days in a joint offensive against rebels from the region, diplomatic and humanitarian sources say.
The city of some 100,000 people has been "subjected to continuous heavy artillery and air strikes all this week" which has caused casualties and property damage, a humanitarian source in Shire told AFP.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Saturday said he was "horrified" by reports of civilians being targeted in Shire and called for international law to be respected.
Ethiopia and its allies have been fighting rebels from Tigray for nearly two years in a brutal conflict that has killed untold numbers and unleashed a humanitarian disaster in the north of the country.
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