The Tigray People's Liberation Front accuses Ethiopia of launching a new military offensive.
Written by: Ayman Ragab
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a major political party and regional force in Ethiopia, accused the federal government over the weekend of launching coordinated military attacks, including drone strikes, targeting its Shirina military camp near the Sudanese border.
She stated that the attacks were largely unjustified.
This fighting comes in the wake of months of deteriorating relations between Addis Ababa and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the party that ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.
“The federal government launched an attack this morning on Tigrayan forces in Shirena,” near the border with Sudan, a senior official in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Emmanuel Assefa, said over the weekend, according to APA.
For several months, federal and Tigrayan forces have been massed along the borders of the northern Tigray region, while the two sides trade accusations of seeking to ignite a new conflict.
In an official statement, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front called on local residents, the diaspora, and religious institutions to mobilize and ”prepare to make history.”.
Reports indicate that the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has intensified its preparations in Tigray in recent months through forced recruitment. The group is reportedly expanding its forces, while many young people are said to be leaving the region in large numbers to avoid forced conscription.
Over the past few weeks, the US ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union's High Representative for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, has traveled to the Tigray region in an effort to mediate a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict.
However, despite these diplomatic efforts, the initiatives appear to have made limited progress, and no clear breakthrough has been achieved so far.
Abraham Belay, a senior federal government official, strongly denied federal responsibility, accusing the Tigray People's Liberation Front leadership of launching new military provocations to prolong its political power.
Pillay warned that the Tigray People's Liberation Front was using young people and teenagers as human shields in a pointless conflict, and urged local youth to refuse to be used as instruments of destruction.
He stressed that the genuine grievances of the people of Tigray cannot be resolved through war, calling instead for immediate dialogue, peaceful engagement, and a return to diplomatic commitments before further irreparable damage is done.
