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From: TT
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Photo: Ethiopian News Agency / AP / TT
This image, distributed by the Ethiopian State News Agency, shows federal forces moving along the border between the Amhara and Tigray regions earlier this week.
Forces from the Ethiopian region of Tigray are said to have fired rockets at Bahir Dar, the regional capital of neighboring Amhara.
The number of refugees arriving in Sudan is increasing. The UN wants humanitarian pathways to be created away from the fighting.
The information, coming from local authorities in the Amhara region, raises concerns that the conflict between federal forces and the Tigrayan Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules in Tigray, will escalate into a broader war.
The Amhara regional government adds that no one was injured in the rocket attack on Bahir Dar.
The city is far from the battles of Tigray. But the two regions are already involved in a border dispute and, according to information from the Tigranian refugees, Amharic militias are fighting on the side of government forces in the conflict with the TPLF.
Shooting rockets
Last week, Tigranian forces fired rockets at two airports in Amhara. They have also fired rockets across the border into neighboring Eritrea, which has a long conflict with the TPLF leadership and which concluded peace with Ethiopia in 2018.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, launched a military operation in Tigray in early November following a deadly attack on federal forces in the state, an attack that the TPLF denies.
According to the Addis Ababa government, its troops have now been successful in the fighting in Tigray. The cities of Adawa and Aksum, the capital of the powerful ancient kingdom of the same name, are said to have been conquered and the troops are now advancing towards the city of Adigrat, less than 12 miles from Tigray’s capital Mekelle, according to the government. .
Continuous flow of refugees
The other party has not commented on the information, which is very difficult to obtain confirmed by independent sources in the closed area.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled to neighboring Sudan to escape the fighting.
The UN plans a continuous flow of refugees. So far, 31,000 have arrived in Sudan, but the refugee agency UNHCR plans to receive up to 200,000.
“Our greatest concern is that if we do not act quickly with sufficient resources, it could harm not only Ethiopia but also Sudan,” said Abdullah Fadil, Sudan representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, wants the parties to allow the opening of humanitarian corridors, safe exits from conflict zones where affected civilians can flee. He says the UN has tried to get everyone involved to comply with international humanitarian law, but that the federal government has so far not allowed any third parties to mediate.
Fix: In a previous version, an incorrect epithet for TPLF appeared.
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