In the city of Dessie, a primary school has become a refuge for those displaced by the conflict in northern Ethiopia. Long confined to Tigray, the fighting has recently spread to two neighboring regions, Afar and Amhara, with heavy weapons killing an untold number of civilians and displacing hundreds of thousands more. "Their deed is ethnic cleansing", says one of them, referring to the TPLF rebels who stunned the world in June by retaking Tigray's capital Mekele, before pushing into Amhara and Afar. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES