Nairobi, Kenya – Ethiopia appeared to be on the brink of civil war on Thursday as its troops escalated hostilities against a powerful ruling group in the northern region of Tigre, gathering troops from across the country as its leaders ignored international requests to withdraw from the coast. .
“Our country has entered an unexpected war,” General Birhanu Jula, deputy chief of the Ethiopian National Defense Force, said on state television on Thursday afternoon. “This war is shameful, it’s unconscious.”
In the initial clash, “there were wounded soldiers on both sides,” he added.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Abi Ahmed announced military action in Tigre, accusing the ruling Tigre People’s Liberation Front of arming irregular troops and attacking the region’s main federal military base.
Western officials reported a clash between federal and local security forces in Tigre on Wednesday, in which dozens of people were killed. Internet and phone services in the area have been cut off since early Wednesday.
Speaking on Tigrian television on Thursday, Tigre’s regional president, Debrecen Gabremichael, said: “People who take steps towards peace and declare war on the Tigris have the full potential to destroy enemies from afar.”
Declan Walsh reports from Nairobi, Kenya and Simon Marks from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
