The Battle of Hawzen was part of a larger war between government forces and Tigray fighters in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The war resulted in massacres, gang rapes, and the flight of more than 2 million of the region’s 6 million people. Although the government now controls many urban centers, fierce fighting continues in remote rural towns like Hosen.

During the fighting between the two sides, civilians, especially children, are suffering. More and more children have been bombarded in Hawzen and other nearby areas, and at least 32 children were admitted to the Eide Hospital in the regional capital of Mekele from December to April due to blast injuries.

According to official records, 13 people were amputated.

Haftom Gebru, a 12-year-old boy from Hawzen, was wounded by shrapnel during a battle during the Easter of the Orthodox Church. A shell hit a pile of rocks in the courtyard of the house, and then ejected in the direction of the boy. When his 60-year-old father Gebru Welde Abrha saw the boy’s injured left hand, he knew he had to amputate his limb.

“I’m so sad that I can’t explain,” the father said from the hospital ward, and the son looked into the distance angrily. “I have a deep understanding.”

Haftom Gebretsadik, a 17-year-old from Freweini near Hawzen, was also injured by a cannon that attacked his home in March. He quietly looked at the stump on his right arm and shook his head.

“I am very worried,” he said. “How do I work?”

If they receive first aid at the nearest medical center, some young victims of blast trauma may retain their limbs. But these facilities are now cannonballs-systematically plundered, destroyed and upside down.

Eritrean soldiers camped at Hawzen Primary Hospital, which once boasted of having everything from X-ray machines to baby incubators. Now it is abandoned and looted.

“As a Tigray, I have a bad feeling,” said 27-year-old Misigna Hagos, a technician who is now unemployed.

“This hospital used to serve thousands of people…now it is destroyed.”