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Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) (AFP)
Tigray’s forces fired rockets at a neighboring state on Friday, raising fears that the internal conflict could spread to other parts of the country, a day after Ethiopia said its forces were closing in on the breakaway region’s capital. Mekele.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner last year, unleashed a military campaign in the Tigray region on November 4 with the stated aim of overthrowing his ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which he accuses of challenging his government and seeking to destabilize it.
Hundreds of people are reported to have died in the conflict in Africa’s second-most populous country, while tens of thousands have fled fighting and airstrikes in Tigray, crossing into neighboring Sudan.
Abiy insisted this week that the military operation was in its final phase. Redwan Hussein, spokesman for an Ethiopian crisis committee handling the conflict, said “our defense forces are advancing and closing in on Mekele.”
– Rocket fire –
An official from Ethiopia’s Amhara state said TPLF forces fired rockets at the regional capital, Bahir Dar, early Friday morning.
Last week, the TPLF also fired rockets at Asmara, the capital of neighboring Eritrea, which it accuses of backing the Ethiopian advance. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia deny the accusation.
Amhara communications official Gizachew Muluneh said the three TPLF rockets had missed all their targets, resulting in no casualties or damage with two rockets near the airport and a third in a corn field.
“My suspicion is that they were targeting the Amhara Media Agency, the airport and a telecommunications tower that is nearby,” Gizachew said.
On Friday, the TPLF accused government forces of an attack on the university in Mekele that injured an unknown number of students. There was no immediate response from the Addis Ababa government, which insists that all airstrikes target military targets.
– From fights to fights –
The TPLF led the overthrow of Mengistu Hailemariam, head of Ethiopia’s Derg military regime, in 1991 and dominated politics for three decades until the arrival of Abiy, who was appointed in 2018.
The party has complained of being marginalized and blamed for the ills of the country. The bitter dispute with the central government this year led the TPLF to hold its own elections in defiance of a postponement due to the pandemic.
International calls for peace have intensified alongside the fighting.
US officials said Thursday that they had urged the escalation of both Abiy and the TPLF leadership to be reduced, but saw little prospect of negotiations.
“At this point, neither party, from all we hear, is interested in mediation,” said Tibor Nagy, the top US diplomat for Africa.
Abiy has insisted that the narrow target of the military operation is the “reactionary and rebellious” members of the TPLF, and not the civilians of Tigray.
But observers have expressed concern that the Tigrayans will lose their jobs or be arrested because of their ethnic origin.
On Thursday, Ethiopia’s army chief Berhanu Jula accused the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who served as Health Minister under TPLF leader Meles Zenawi, of working with the TPLF.
“He has worked in neighboring countries to condemn the war. He has worked for them to obtain weapons,” Berhanu said, without offering evidence to support the claims.
Tedros denied the accusation on Twitter, saying: “I am on one side and that is the side of peace.”
– Victims and refugees –
The conflict began when Abiy accused TPLF forces of attacking two federal military camps in the region. Since then, his controversial campaign has seen fighter jets bombarding Tigray and heavy fighting, while Amnesty International has documented a gruesome massacre.
Air Force Chief Yilma Merdasa said state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate admitted they were also deploying drones, but denied Tigray’s claims that the drones came from abroad.
“This is a time when we can fight with a button. Sitting at home, pressing the button to destroy the target.
“So one of the air force capabilities that we’re fighting … is UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). However, this UAV is within the air force, which we operate from here.”
A communications blackout in Tigray has made the claims difficult to verify, but the total death toll is believed to be in the hundreds.
Meanwhile, the UN says a “large-scale humanitarian crisis” is unfolding, with 36,000 people arriving in neighboring Sudan, according to that country’s refugee commission.
© 2020 AFP
