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Addis Ababa (AFP)
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Wednesday that he had ordered a military response to an “attack” by the ruling party of the restless Tigray region on a camp that housed federal troops.
The Tigray Popular Liberation Front (TPLF) “has attacked a military camp” in the region and “tried to loot” military assets, Abiy said in a post on Facebook and Twitter.
“Our defense forces … have been ordered to fulfill their mission to save the country. The end 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. . .
Details about the alleged attack in Tigray were not immediately available and calls to the northern region were not being processed.
It was also not immediately clear what form the federal military response might take, although analysts and diplomats have been warning for weeks that the confrontation between the federal government and the TPLF could escalate into violence.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Abiy came to power in 2018 thanks to anti-government protests.
Under Abiy, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, Tigray 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 views the other as illegitimate, and federal lawmakers have ruled that the Abiy government should cut off contact and funding for the Tigray leadership.
Tensions have risen in recent days over who controls federal military personnel and assets in Tigray.
Last week, Tigray prevented an Abiy-appointed general from assuming his military post, saying Abiy no longer had the authority to make such moves.
© 2020 AFP
