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Tensions rise when the prime minister orders a military response after accusing the party in the troubled Tigray region of launching an attack on federal troops.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says he ordered a military response to an “attack” by the ruling party of the Tigray region on a camp that housed federal troops.
Details about the alleged attack in Tigray were not immediately available on Tuesday. There was no immediate reaction from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and calls to the northern region were not received.
In a post on social media, Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a military camp in the region and attempting to “loot” military assets.
“Our defense forces… have been ordered to carry out their mission to save the country. The last point of the red line has been crossed. Force is being used as the last measure to save the people and the country, ”he said.
Abiy gave no indication of the nature of the response, but observers have been warning for weeks that a clash between the government and the TPLF could escalate into violence.
The TPLF was the dominant force in the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a multi-ethnic coalition of four parties that had ruled the country for almost 30 years before Abiy came to power in 2018 thanks to a widespread anti-government policy and national protests.
Last year, the TPLF split from the EPRDF when it refused to merge with the other three coalition parties into the newly formed Prosperity Party (PP) under Abiy.
Tigrayan leaders have complained of being unfairly targeted in corruption trials, removed from the highest positions and generally scapegoats for the country’s troubles.
Ethiopia was due to hold national elections in August, but the country’s electoral body ruled in March that all voting should be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Lawmakers then voted to extend the officials’ terms, which would have expired in early October, but Tigrayan leaders rejected this and went ahead with regional elections in September that the Abiy government deemed illegal.
Now each side sees the other as illegitimate, and federal MPs have ruled that the Abiy government should cut off contact with the Tigray leadership and its funding.
In recent days, tensions have risen over who controls federal military personnel and assets in Tigray.
Last week, Tigray prevented an Abiy-appointed general from assuming his military post, saying the Ethiopian prime minister no longer had the authority to make such moves.
Tigrayan officials have said in recent days that they would not start a military conflict.
“We will never be the first to fire or the first to blink,” Getachew Reda, a senior member of the TPLF, told AFP news agency last week.
The International Crisis Group, citing “former Tigrayan officers,” said in a report last week that Tigray “comprises more than half of the total personnel and mechanized divisions of the armed forces.”
On Tuesday night, hours before Abiy’s announcement, Wondimu Asamnew, another senior Tigray official, told AFP that the federal government was stockpiling troops on the southern border of Tigray, a claim that could not be independently verified. .
“I think that when it comes to military mobilization, it is not child’s play. It can unleash an all-out war… what they are doing is playing with fire, ”Wondimu said.
“One small spark can ignite the entire region. So I think we are on alert and I can assure you that we are capable of defending ourselves. “
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