Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The UN says at least 12 other civilians have been killed in air strikes
At least three children have been killed in a series of air strikes on Ethiopia’s Ethiopian-Tigray region, the UN said.
At least 12 civilians were killed in the strikes, which hit six villages in an area bordering Eritrea, the UN said.
Ethiopia regularly bombards rebel positions in the area. One witness told the BBC that the bombs had killed 70 people.
However, Ethiopia says it carried out air strikes in response to an attack by rebels.
The Ethiopian army said that no children were among those killed.
In a statement, the Ethiopian government said it had “responded to an attack with all the appropriate means at our disposal”.
Witnesses to the air strikes, however, said they could not be ruled out as a result of “tragedy”.
The Tigray Liberation Front (TLF), which is fighting the Ethiopian government for decades, released a statement in which it blamed the government for the deaths.
It said the air raids were in response to an attack on a border guard base on 20 February.
Airstrikes on the border previously intensified after the death of prominent government critic Gebreyesus Tesfaye, a Tigray region native and one of Ethiopia’s most famous dissidents, in 2015.
