Addis Ababa, 14 August 2023 (dpa/MIA) - At least 26 people were killed and more than 55 others injured in an airstrike on a busy town square in Ethiopia's restive Amhara region, a hospital official told dpa on Monday.

Witnesses said a marketplace in the town of Finote Selam was targeted in Sunday's attack.

The Ethiopian government had declared a state of emergency in the northern region earlier this month as unrest grew following clashes between government forces and local Fano militiamen.

The militia was recently able to seize several towns in Amhara, the second-most populous region in Ethiopia. However, the Ethiopian News Agency reported that the fighters have since retreated to smaller villages amid growing pressure from federal forces.

Tensions began to escalate in April, when the central government announced it would begin disbanding regional forces.

The militias in Amhara - among them the Fano group - had once been important allies of the federal government in its two-year war with rebels in the neighbouring Tigray region.

The civil war ended with a peace agreement last November. The government in Addis Ababa is now on a drive to limit the power of the the country's many regional security forces.

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