ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – Ethiopian and Eritrean forces launched a “massive” joint offensive against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the northern region of Tigray yesterday, the rebels said.
“The enemy, having already relocated a massive military force to Eritrea, has now begun a joint campaign with the foreign invading force of Eritrea to brutalise and exterminate the people of Tigray,” the rebels’ military command said in a statement.
AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for over a year.
TPLF spokesman Kindeya Gebrehiwot told AFP the attack was coming “from Eritrea”.
Another TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda said on Twitter that the rebels were “defending their positions” and reported “heavy shelling” from some locations.
Addis Ababa has not responded to requests for comment about the reported offensive.
Fighting between government forces and the rebels resumed last week after a five-month lull.
Clashes on the ground and air raids over Tigray have dashed hopes of peacefully resolving the nearly two-year war.
Combat had been concentrated around the southeastern border of Tigray, with the rebels pushing into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, sending residents fleeing.
The government on Wednesday accused the TPLF of launching a wider “invasion” into parts of western Tigray, and other areas west of the initial clashes. The rebels in turn alleged that the government and its neighbour Eritrea – which backed federal forces during the war’s early phase – were responsible for opening a new front.
Yesterday, the government said TPLF attacks “had further continued to intensify”.
“Innocent civilians are being killed; many are being displaced and property is being destroyed,” the Government Communication Service said in a statement.
Fighting has spread since fighting erupted over a week ago, while the capital of the war-torn Tigray region has been hit twice by air strikes.
The first air raid on Tigray’s capital Mekele killed at least four people, including children, in a strike UNICEF said “hit a kindergarten”.
The second, around midnight on Tuesday, caused injuries and property damage, the TPLF said.
Both sides accused each other of firing first and shattering a March truce that had paused the worst of the bloodshed in northern Ethiopia.
The renewed fighting has alarmed the international community, with United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres and diplomats from the European Union and the African Union among those appealing for restraint.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday called on the Ethiopian government and the TPLF “to immediately halt military operations and redouble efforts to bring a permanent end to the conflict”.
