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An official from Ethiopia’s Amhara state said TPLF forces fired rockets at the regional capital, Bahir Dar.
BAHIR DAR, ETHIOPIA – Tigray forces fired rockets at a neighboring Ethiopian state on Friday, raising fears that internal conflict could spread to other parts of the country, a day after the federal government said its forces were they were approaching the capital of the breakaway region.
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.
Earlier this week, Abiy said the military operation was in its final phase.
Redwan Hussein, spokesman for an Ethiopian committee handling the conflict, said “our defense forces are advancing and closing in on Mekele,” the regional capital of Tigray.
On Friday, the government claimed to have captured a number of villages in Tigray. A communications blackout in the region has made it difficult to verify such claims.
– Rocket fire –
An official from Ethiopia’s Amhara state said TPLF forces fired rockets at its 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 all three TPLF rockets missed their target, causing no casualties or damage, with two rockets hitting near the airport and a third hitting a corn field.
For its part, the TPLF on Friday accused government forces of an attack on the Mekele university that injured an unknown number of students.
Tigray President Debretsion Gebremichael told AFP that the rocket attack on Bahir Dar airport was in retaliation for that attack.
There was no immediate response from the Addis Ababa government, which has insisted that all of its airstrikes target military targets.
– From fights to fights –
The TPLF led the overthrow of Mengistu Hailemariam, head of the Derg military regime in Ethiopia, in 1991 and dominated the country’s politics until Abiy became prime minister in 2018.
The party has complained of being marginalized and blamed for the ills of the country. The bitter dispute with the central government prompted the TPLF to hold its own elections this year in defiance of a postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.
International calls for peace have intensified along with the fighting.
US officials said 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, not ordinary Tigrayan civilians.
But observers have expressed concern that the Tigrayans will lose their jobs or be arrested because of their ethnic origin.
Ethiopia’s army chief Berhanu Jula has accused the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a Tigrayan who served as Minister of Health under TPLF leader Meles Zenawi, of working on behalf of the party. .
“He has worked for them to get weapons,” Berhanu said Thursday, without offering evidence.
Tedros denied the accusation and tweeted: “I am on one side and that is the side of peace.”
– Victims and refugees –
The conflict started when Abiy accused TPLF forces of attacking two federal military camps in the region.
Since then, his campaign has seen fighter jets bombarding Tigray and heavy fighting, while Amnesty International has documented a gruesome massacre in which “dozens, and probably hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death” in the southwestern city of Mai -Kadra.
Air Force Chief Yilma Merdasa told state affiliate Fana Broadcasting Corporate that they were also deploying drones, but denied Tigray’s claims that they were coming from abroad.
Meanwhile, the UN says a “large-scale humanitarian crisis” is unfolding, with 36,000 people arriving in neighboring Sudan.
UN officials in Geneva said about $ 200 million will be needed to provide assistance to some 200,000 people who could flee the unrest over the next six months.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said there were already 12,000 children among the refugees.
“Restricted access and ongoing communications blackouts have left an estimated 2.3 million children in need of humanitarian assistance and beyond their reach” in Tigray, said Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which operates in eastern Sudan, warned that up to 5,000 people were crossing from Ethiopia every day.
“People sleep outside. There are no tents, just blankets,” said National Director Will Carter.
“They basically move with nothing, towards nothing.”
