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Rockets were launched into Eritrea’s capital on Saturday, marking a massive escalation as deadly fighting in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia crosses an international border and brings to life some of observers’ worst fears. .
The leader of the Tigray region has confirmed the reports and is threatening more missiles, saying that “we will take any legitimate military target and fire.”
Tigray regional president Debretsion Gebremichael, in an interview with The Associated Press, did not say how many missiles were fired at the city of Asmara on Saturday, but said it was the only city in Eritrea that was attacked.
At least three rockets appeared to be aimed at the airport in Eritrea’s capital, hours after the Tigray regional government warned it could strike. It has accused Eritrea of attacking it at the invitation of the Ethiopian federal government since the conflict broke out in northern Ethiopia on 4 November.
Eritrea is one of the loneliest countries in the world. Details of deaths or injuries are unknown. Tigray regional officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Fears of civil war
Experts have warned that Eritrea, which has long been at odds with the Tigray regional government, or the Tigray Popular Liberation Front (TPLF), could be embroiled in Ethiopia’s escalating conflict that has killed countless hundreds of people. people on each side and sent some 25,000 refugees to flee to Sudan. .
Earlier Saturday, the TPLF said it fired rockets at two airports in Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region, as the conflict spreads to other parts of Africa’s second most populous country and threatens civil war in the heart of the Horn of Africa. .
The TPLF said in a statement on Tigray TV that such attacks would continue “unless the attacks against us are stopped.”
Ethiopia’s federal government said the airports in Gondar and Bahir Dar were damaged in the attacks on Friday night, and claimed that the regional forces in Tigray were “repairing and using the latest weapons within their arsenals.”
Each side in the fight regards the other as illegal, the result of a months-long fight amid dramatic shifts in power after Ethiopian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy Ahmed took office two ago. years.
The Tigray regional government, which once dominated the country’s ruling coalition, broke away last year, and the federal government says members of the region’s ruling “clique” must now be arrested and their well-stocked arsenal destroyed.
‘Dangerous trajectory’
Fears of ethnic attacks are increasing. The Tigray Popular Liberation Front, which rules the region, denied in a statement allegations that dozens or even hundreds of civilians were “hacked to death” Monday in the city of Mai-Kadra. The massacre was confirmed by Amnesty International, which quoted a man who helped clean the bodies as saying that many of the dead were ethnic Amhara.
The statement by Tigray regional president Debretsion Gebremichael stated that the accusations against the TPLF forces, repeated by Abiy, are “proliferating with the intention of inciting hatred towards (ethnic) Tigrayans in Ethiopia”.
“A justified risk / threat of fear of discrimination and ethnic discrimination has emerged,” the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said in a statement on Saturday. He has visited 43 people in police custody in the capital Addis Ababa and said that “some of the detainees have reported that they have been arrested only because of their ethnic origin.”
The international community is warning against deadly ethnic tensions. The UN office for genocide prevention has said that the rhetoric sets out a “dangerous trajectory that increases the risk of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”
Humanitarian concerns
Communications and transportation links to the Tigray region remain cut, making it difficult to verify claims on both sides. Desperate families are unable to communicate with their relatives, and the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations are warning of the disaster as food, fuel and other supplies are depleted for millions of people.
“The military escalation in Ethiopia is putting the stability of the entire country and the region in general at risk,” tweeted the European Union Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic. “If this persists, a full-blown humanitarian crisis is imminent. I am calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to Tigray. “
Meanwhile, a senior TPLF official appeared to confirm the federal government’s claim that TPLF forces triggered the conflict by attacking a military base. Sekoutoure Getachew in a video discussion said that the pre-emptive strikes were carried out in self-defense against the Northern Command of the Ethiopian army, calling it an “internationally known practice.”
There are no signs of relief in the fight. Abiy has turned down growing calls from the United States and other countries for an immediate reduction.
