NAIROBI — Amid a string of battlefield losses that have allowed rebels from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region to move into neighboring areas and down a key highway leading to the capital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s prime minister called Tuesday for a national war effort, including mass enlistment.
“Now is the right time for all capable Ethiopians who are of age to join the Defence Forces, Special Forces and militias and show your patriotism,” Abiy Ahmed’s office said in a lengthy statement. He alleged that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political party that controlled Ethiopia for three decades and has been fighting the government for the past nine months, is being aided by “foreign hands.”
In recent weeks, the war in Tigray has spread into the Amhara and Afar regions as the TPLF’s militia has pursued its stated aim of debilitating the military capabilities of Ethiopia’s government and defeating aligned forces from neighboring Eritrea and ethnic militias that support the government.
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