[ad_1]
02:20 pm
Sunday 15 November 2020
London (BBC)
The leader of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia confirmed that his forces bombed the airport in the Eritrean capital Asmara on Saturday night.
Tigray’s leader, Departition Gebremichael, said his forces had fought with Eritrean forces on various fronts in recent days.
The TPLF has accused Eritrea President Isaias Afwerki of siding with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in the conflict.
Local media and diplomats say missiles were fired from Ethiopia’s Tigray region, across the border into the Eritrean capital. Explosions were heard in Asmara as several rockets fell on the outskirts of the city, but there were no direct reports of casualties.
This came after local leaders from the Tigray region, involved in a conflict with the Ethiopian federal government, threatened to launch attacks.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front also said it targeted sites in the Amhara region on Friday and promised more strikes.
What is happening in Ethiopia?
Ethiopia has undergone major changes since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Last year, Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize after reaching a peace agreement with neighboring Eritrea, with which Ethiopia fought a bloody war two decades ago.
But the radical reforms he pushed for marginalized the TPLF Tigrayans who had long dominated the country’s political scene. In recent weeks, the tension between the front and the federal government has increased dangerously.
The fighting in Tigray has affected Sudan, with at least 17,000 civilians crossing the Sudanese border from Ethiopia, according to the United Nations.
On Saturday night, Asmara residents said they heard loud explosions, amid reports of rockets hitting near the city’s airport.
The Tigrayans had previously threatened to launch missile attacks on Eritrea, after accusing their forces of crossing the border into Ethiopia to support federal government forces there.
While the Eritrean government has denied any role in the conflict, BBC Africa editor Will Ross says reports of fighting along the border and of soldiers receiving treatment in Eritrean hospitals indicate the opposite is true.
Other field developments
On Friday night, it was reported that rockets were fired at the cities of “Bahir Dar” and “Gondar” in Amhara state, whose forces are fighting with the federal government against the Tigrayans.
An Ethiopian government official said that one missile hit the airport in “Gondar” and partially destroyed it, while a second missile was fired simultaneously and landed outside the airport building in “Bahir Dar”.
The Tigrayan side said the missile strikes were in response to recent airstrikes by Abiy Ahmed’s forces.
A spokesman for the Tigrayan Front warned in a Facebook post that “as long as the attacks against the Tigrayans are not stopped, our attacks will intensify.”
The BBC’s Africa editor says the Ethiopian prime minister expected a quick military victory at Tigray, but may have underestimated his enemy.
He adds that the Tigrayans are combat veterans and know the mountainous terrain well. A protracted regional conflict is feared to have dire consequences for civilians in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa as a whole.
How horrible is the ongoing violence?
Hundreds of people have lost their lives in Ethiopia since the fighting began, and a massacre of civilians was reported this week.
Amnesty International, a human rights organization, said it had confirmed that “dozens, possibly hundreds of people were stabbed or killed” in the city of “Mai Kadra” on Monday.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused forces loyal to the Tigrayans of carrying out the mass killings, while the TPLF denied involvement. The High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ethiopia said it would send an investigation team.
What are the causes of the Tigray crisis?
The TPLF had dominated military and political life in Ethiopia for decades before Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018 and implemented major reforms.
Last year, the Ethiopian prime minister dissolved the ruling coalition, made up of several ethnically based regional parties, and merged them into a single national party, which the TPLF refused to join.
Hostility escalated last September when Tigray held elections in the region, challenging the national ban on holding all elections imposed due to the Corona epidemic. Abi Ahmed responded by describing the elections as illegal.
Tigray’s local leaders see Abiy Ahmed’s reforms as an attempt to empower his central government and weaken the power of regional states.
She is also disgusted with what she describes as the “unprincipled” friendship between Eritrea’s prime minister and President Isaias Afwerki.
The Ethiopian prime minister believes that TPLF officials are working to undermine his authority.
Abiy Ahmed had ordered a military operation against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, after he said its fighters had crossed the “last red line”. He accused them of launching an attack on a camp that housed federal forces on November 4, calling this act “treason.” However, the TPLF denied attacking the camp.
