Ethiopia's Tigray conflict seeps into neighboring regions
AFP. July 18, 2021, 05:49 AM
Recent hopes that the conflict in Ethiopia's Tigray region might be simmering down, seemed nixed Sunday as a government spokesman announced Tigrayan "rebels" carrying out operations against pro-government troops in the neighboring Afar region.
The "very limited action" targeted special forces and militia fighters from Oromia region, Ethiopia's largest, who were massing along the Tigray-Afar border, the rebel spokesman, Getachew Reda, told AFP.
"We took those actions to ensure those forces are sent back to Oromia, and we have managed to do that," Getachew said, adding that there were some casualties but he could not provide figures.
"Our action was very limited to dispersing the peasant militia from Oromia that was mostly press-ganged into fighting the useless war."
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray last November to detain and disarm leaders of the region's then-ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).
He said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.
The 2019 Nobel Peace laureate declared victory in late November after government forces took the Tigray capital Mekele, but TPLF leaders remained on the run and fighting continued.
Last month the war took a stunning turn when pro-TPLF forces retook Mekele, Abiy declared a unilateral ceasefire and the army mostly pulled out of Tigray.
In a statement posted on Twitter Sunday, Abiy referred to the TPLF "junta" as "Ethiopia's cancer."
In language that seemed dangerously reminiscent of that used prior to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, he maintained that "It is inevitable that it resists in one way or another. But surely, the junta will be removed so that it will not grow again."
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