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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed confirmed on Friday that the military operations led by the Ethiopian army in the Tigray region (north of the country) have “clear, limited and achievable goals.”
He explained in a tweet on “Twitter” that the objective of the operations of the “defense forces” in the north of the country is “to restore the rule of law and constitutional order” in the Tigray region and “to protect the rights of the Ethiopians to live in peace wherever they are in the country. “
From the elections that took place last September in Tigray and were not recognized by the federal government
Abi Ahmed emphasized that “the federal government tried to resolve the differences with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray” with patience for several months “, but to no avail, despite” mediation, reconciliation and dialogue. “
He considered that these efforts had failed “because of the criminal arrogance and intransigence of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray. The attack by the front on the Northern Military Command based in Tigray was the last straw.”
Notably, the front denied the attack and accused Abi of fabricating history to justify the deployment of the army against him.
Ethiopia mobilized for war in the northern Tigray region on Thursday, disappointing international hopes of avoiding a conflict between the Abiy Ahmed government and a powerful ethnic faction that led the ruling coalition for decades.
Abiy Ahmed ordered the mobilization of forces from all over the country and their dispatch to Tigray province after two days of clashes between government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
For its part, the Tigray regional government led by Debrision Gebramikail said Thursday that it was well equipped to face any attack from any direction.
A humanitarian worker in the region told Reuters that the sounds of separate shelling resounded in the town of Aburafi, near the Tigray-Amhara border, at 3 am local time (midnight GMT) on Friday.
Two diplomatic sources also told Reuters that two Ethiopian fighters were seen flying over the city of Mikli, the capital of Tigray, on Thursday afternoon, in a move described as a show of force by the Ethiopian National Defense Forces.
McKelly, largest city in the Tigray region (Archives)
The Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that Ethiopia on Thursday closed airspace over Tigray and halted all domestic and international flights passing through airspace in the north of the country.
Government forces were fighting the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Tigrayans, which for decades had been the dominant political force in Ethiopia’s multi-ethnic ruling coalition until my father Oromo came to power two years ago. Abiy Ahmed reconstituted the ruling coalition into a single party, which the Tigray People’s Liberation Front had refused to join.
Countries in the region fear the crisis will escalate into an all-out war under the leadership of Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year after ending a decades-long conflict with neighboring Eritrea, but failed avoid ethnic unrest.
In this context, António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, expressed his deep concern about the clashes in the Tigray region. “Ethiopia’s stability is important to the entire Horn of Africa. I call for an immediate reduction and peaceful resolution to the conflict,” Guterres said in a message on Twitter on Friday.
