At least 104 Bangladeshi workers of DBL Group are trapped in the northern region of Tigray in Ethiopia where federal troops are fighting local forces, reports benews.24.
MA Jabbar, managing director of DBL Group, a leading Bangladeshi garment manufacturer, confirmed the entrapment of Bangladeshi workers. "We have sought help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to evacuate the workers," Jabbar told bdnews24.com on Saturday.
The Ethiopian federal government blamed the ruling party in Tigray, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, or TPLF, for the latest attacks, Reuters reports. "The TPLF junta is utilising the last of the weaponry within its arsenals," the government's emergency task force wrote on Twitter.
Ethiopia's federal government has declared war on Tigray, leading to fears of a protracted conflict in Africa's second-most populous country. The Tigray region is one of 10 semi-autonomous federal states organised along ethnic lines in Ethiopia, and home mostly to the Tigrayan people who make up about 6 percent of Ethiopia's population of more than 110 million.
Two airports in Amhara, also a northern state, were targeted by rocket fire late on Friday, leading to the escalation of violence.
DBL Group suspended production at its plant in Ethiopia. "We're trying to find a way to remove the workers quickly," Jabbar said.
The factory established by DBL in 2018 employed about 2,000 workers, including Bangladeshis and Ethiopians.
The DBL authorities said the workers had been evacuated to a safe place in the city after the clashes began. The situation worsened after a regional rebel group in Tigray attacked the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
One of the rockets hit the airport in Gondar and partially damaged it late on Friday, said Awoke Worku, spokesperson for Gondar central zone, while a second one fired simultaneously landed just outside of the airport at Bahir Dar, according to a Reuters report.
Debretsion Gebremichael, chairman of the TPLF and the state's president, said the airports were legitimate targets. "Any airport used to attack Tigray will be a legitimate target, not cities of Amhara," he told Reuters in a text message.
