The Afar region official has announced that more than 200,000 people have been displaced following the eruption of renewed fighting in northern Ethiopia this past week.

The region’s head of disaster prevention and risk management Mohamed Hussein told VOA’s Amharic Service that Tigrayan forces were attacking the Yalo woreda of the Afar region with heavy artillery for the past three days, causing the displacement of the population.

Mohammed said the rapid assessment made by the region showed around 200,000 people from Yalo, Chifra, and other three woredas have fled to other villages and towns further south seeking refugee. Most families affected by the fighting in Yalo woreda were already displaced by prior violence, he added.

Several civilians, including three children, were killed in the past two days in an attack in Yalo woreda, he said. Some other civilians were injured and are being treated at Dufti hospital in Semera, Mohamed told VOA, adding that the toll could still rise.

The UN children’s agency UNICEF on Tuesday condemned the shelling into villages in the Afar region, saying it has killed children and left many others injured.