Drone strike hits Sheraro shelter for displaced people; eight civilians reported killed, six seriously injured

The Sheraro town information and communications office reported that a drone strike hit the shelter for internally displaced people at Adi Abay, Hayelom tabia, Sheraro, during the night of 24/01/2019 E.C. (4 October 2026), killing eight civilians, including a child, and seriously injuring six others.

Ahram Online reports: Drone at IDP camp in Ethiopia's Tigray kills eight: humanitarian, witness

Ahram Online reports: Drone at IDP camp in Ethiopia's Tigray kills eight: humanitarian, witness

Ahram Online reports: Drone at IDP camp in Ethiopia's Tigray kills eight: humanitarian, witness

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reports: At least eight killed in Ethiopia drone strike in Tigray IDP camp: humanitarian source, witness

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reports: At least eight killed in Ethiopia drone strike in Tigray IDP camp: humanitarian source, witness

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reports: At least eight killed in Ethiopia drone strike in Tigray IDP camp: humanitarian source, witness

Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reports: At least eight killed in Ethiopia drone strike in Tigray IDP camp: humanitarian source, witness

Reuters reported, through humanitarian sources, that eight people were killed in an airstrike in Sheraro. The humanitarian bulletin it cited did not identify which force carried out the airstrikes.

A local account says that among those killed in the strike on the Sheraro shelter were a mother displaced from Qafta Humera and five of her young children, who had fled Qafta Humera and were living at the shelter. The account appears to describe victims of the same incident reported by the town office. Tigray Monitor has not confirmed the victims' identities or reconciled this account with the overall casualty list; it is not counted as additional deaths.

Tigray Monitor's editorial desk attributes this drone strike to the Ethiopian federal government. The desk's verification, from staff and contacts on the ground, is that the drones carrying out strikes in Tigray are operated by the Ethiopian government and are flown from Bahir Dar, from Afar and from Western Tigray. This is the desk's finding; statements by other sources about responsibility are recorded in their own claims.

Three photographs received by the desk on 5 October 2026, described by the sender as taken at Sheraro, show a funeral gathering with several shrouded bodies laid on wooden stretchers, among mourners in traditional white dress and clergy with ceremonial umbrellas; at least four stretchers are visible in one frame. The photographs are consistent with a burial of multiple victims. The desk has not yet established who took them, the exact time and place, or matched the bodies shown to the town office casualty list; they are not used to change the casualty figure. Originals are held by the desk and are not published, out of respect for the dead and their families.

Tigray Monitor staff and contacts on the ground verified to the editorial desk, with videos and images reviewed by the desk, that the shelter for displaced people at Adi Abay in Sheraro was struck by an Ethiopian federal government drone on the night of 4 October 2026 and that civilians, including children, were killed. The figure of eight dead and six injured remains that of the town office.