Nairobi, Kenya (AP) – Ethiopia’s air force is “targeting with certainty,” an army official said Monday, adding that the federal government continues its offensive against the heavily armed northern region of Tigre and sees no clear path to peace.
A military official said more than 20,000 troops had been sent to the border by neighboring Sudan, while a military official said Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abi Ahmed had again tried to calm concerns that a “terrible confrontation” was imminent. Civil war could turn into and destabilize Africa’s strategic horn. Field.
It is not clear how many people have been killed in the outbreak In Tigre last week because Abiya’s government is stepping up international pressure to calm tensions. The United Nations and others have warned of an emerging humanitarian catastrophe Affects 9 million people.
The Northern Tigris region is largely cut off from the outside world, making it difficult to verify the statements on each side. Each blames the other for starting the fight.
Ethiopian Major General Mohamed Tsema, who spoke of being “beaten” by the air force, also in a Facebook post on Sunday dismissed as “totally false” a claim made by the Tigre regional government that the fighter jet had been shot down.
The Tigre regional government, the Tigre People’s Liberation Front, confirmed the federal government’s airstrikes in a Facebook post, saying the air force has carried out more than 10 such attacks so far.
The Ethiopian prime minister has shown no signs of negotiating with the TPLF, which once dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition, but is now considered illegal by the federal government because last year Abia tried to turn the coalition into a single prosperity party. Demanded. The TPLF marginalized Abiya’s political reforms and reprimanded the federal government for holding local elections in September.
“Concerns that Ethiopia will descend into chaos are unfounded,” Abi said in a brief statement on Monday. On Sunday, Abi reshuffled his cabinet To make major changes in the clear steps taken by his government to bring forward supporters of military aggression under the military and intelligence leadership.
This is nothing but a full-fledged attempt by the federal government to remove the TPLF leadership. They seem to mean the course, “Will Davis, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, told the Associated Press. “No one is interested in negotiations at this stage. At least, no one is interested in giving relief. ”
He asked: “If this conflict spreads, will the federal government start looking for a negotiated settlement and will the Tigre leadership do the same?”
Diplomats and others have claimed that the conflict in Tigre could destabilize other parts of Ethiopia, Africa’s second-largest country of 110 million people, many ethnic groups and other regions that have sought even more freedom since winning the Nobel in the last few years. Years, trying to keep the country together with the promotion of national unity.
The conflict in Tigre has left two heavily armed forces at the center of Africa’s strategic horn, and experts worry that neighbors, including Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia, will be crushed.
In a sign of rapidly rising tensions, the Sudanese leader said his country was concerned about the fighting and urged the warring parties to find a peaceful solution to their disputes. Sudan forms the western border of Tigris.
The statement came after General Abdel-Fatah Burhan, head of the ruling Sovereign Council, chaired a meeting of Sudan’s National Defense Council, the country’s highest decision-making body on security matters. He called on the international and regional communities to “do their part for the stability of the region and the opportunities for peace in Ethiopia.”
An army official in Khartoum said the Sudanese Niss army had deployed more than 6,000 troops in the border area of Ethiopia since fighting began in Tigre last week. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have the authority to brief the media.
Sudan has already sealed its borders with Ethiopia’s Tigre and our territories. But it’s tough for the potential influx of people fleeing the fight.
“We have completed our preparations,” said Lt. Gen. Shams al-Din Kabashi, a member of the Sovereign Council, in an interview with the Yum al-Tele newspaper published on Saturday.
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Magdi contributed from Cairo.
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