Nairobi, Kenya – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi Ahmed on Wednesday ordered military action against the regional government in the north of the country, sharply escalating the summer conflict, threatening to plunge the country into a new phase of upheaval.
In a statement, Mr Abi accused the region’s ruling party, the Tigre People’s Liberation Front, of trying to provoke war by launching a military attack on a large Ethiopian army base in Tigre early Wednesday morning.
“The last red line has been crossed with this morning’s attack, and so the federal government has been forced to confront the military.” He added that the troops were ordered in Tigre to “continue their mission to save the country and the region.”
Hours later, a spokesman for Mr Abiya said military action was underway, although she did not specify what was involved in the operation.
The government then declared a six-month state of emergency in Tigre, which gave it the power to suspend political activity and democratic rights.
It was not immediately possible to verify that the intervention described by Mr. Abi was actually aimed at capturing artillery and other military equipment. His statement, which said the attack took place that morning, was released at 2 a.m., which would give him a significantly faster response.
U.S. With a global focus on the vote count in the presidential election, Mr Abi’s announcement raises fears that Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, and other regions are already reeling from violent ethnic tensions. The edge of potentially devastating internal conflict.
Kenya-based Horn of Africa analyst Rashid Abdi said on Twitter, “Abi has made the worst strategic mistake of his career. Any conflict on Tigre could have “disastrous consequences for the entire subcontinent,” he added.
Tensions between Tigre and the federal government have been steadily rising since September, when Tigre canceled Mr Abi’s election in the rest of Ethiopia due to the Kovid-19 epidemic.
At a news conference on Monday, Tigre’s president, Debrecen Gabremischel, warned that Mr Abiat was planning to attack the area as a punishment for his disobedience.
After Mr Abi released his statement on Wednesday, Tigre announced that it had closed its airport in the area and banned road activity, the regional television broadcaster noted. Tigre’s authorities also called on Ethiopian army generals and soldiers to “rebel against the dictatorship” in a clear call to revolt against the government.
The Tigre People’s Liberation Front, which began as a rebel group, has had a strong presence in Ethiopia for decades. In 1991, he ousted the country’s longtime dictator, Mangistu Hale Miriam, and held the presidency for two decades, replacing Mele Zenawi from Tigre, and ruled as president and then prime minister until his death in 2012.
But the party’s influence has waned sharply under Mr Abi, who came to power on a reformist wave in 2018, and its leaders have increasingly insisted that they are being deliberately sided with other regions.
Tigre accounts for only 5 percent of Ethiopia’s 109 million people, but its history and wealth have given it more political information than more populous regions.
Last year, the Tigre People’s Liberation Front split from Mr Abi’s ruling coalition, then moved on with regional parliamentary elections in September.
Mr Abini’s announcement of Belikos particularly struck a blow to the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader for making peace with Eritrea. After coming to power, he gained widespread praise for trying to modernize Ethiopia by allowing new freedoms and making the ambitious program of economic growth a champion.
During the summer, Mr. Abiya was involved in a diplomatic dispute with Egypt. The hydro-billionaire hydroelectric dam was taken over by Ethiopia Nile, which began filling in July. President Trump, who tried to mediate the dispute in the spring, recently speculated that Egypt would launch a military attack on the dam.
At home, Mr Abi has struggled to cope with the long-pressed demands of Ethiopia’s ethnic groups for more autonomy from the central government. On Sunday, attackers killed at least 54 ethnic Amhars in the western Oromia region, rights groups said.
Mr Abi blamed the attack on a group called the Oromo Liberation Army, which he said was supported by the Tigre government. Tigre denied any role in it.
Some analysts speculated that Mr. Abe chose to run against Tigre when the world’s attention was drawn by the American presidential election. “I think the most important factor determining the timing of the war is the UP election,” said Semir Youssef, a senior researcher at the Horn Africa for Africa program at the Institute for Security Studies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Text message.
Zemelak Aitinev, an associate professor of government studies at Addis Ababa University, said Mr Abiyev’s announcement was “sad but not surprising.”
He added, “Tigre is a heavy military field.” “I hope everyone knows what they’re doing.”
Declan Walsh reported Simon Marks from Nairobi and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
