The war has resumed in southern Tigray, where since August 24, 2022, fighting has opposed Ethiopian pro-government troops and Tigrayan rebels. According to diplomatic and humanitarian sources, the rebels advanced about fifty kilometers towards the south, inside the Amhara region, as well as in the south-east, in the Afar region. The spokesman for the Tigray authorities, Getachew Reda, explained that the Tigrayan rebels, after initially seeing “forbidden (their) position”had launched a counter-offensive beyond the borders of Tigray.
According to several testimonies, these clashes push the populations to flee, on a wide front line, going from the town of Kobo to Weldiya, not far from Lalibela. The Ethiopian army claims to have withdrawn from Kobo, to “avoid mass casualties among civilians”.
The Ethiopian authorities also accuse the Tigrayans of having launched an offensive in the direction of Walkaite, on the border with Sudan, and indicate that they shot down a plane coming from Sudan, loaded with arms intended for the Tigrayan rebels.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) also denounces a military alliance between Eritrea and the Ethiopian federal government. According to the commander of the rebel forces, the Ethiopian and Eritrean forces launched an offensive on September 1, 2022 “joint” massive against the dissident region. Ethiopia, “having repositioned a massive military force in Eritrea, has now launched a joint offensive with the invading forces of Eritrea” against northern Tigray, bordering Eritrea, announced the command of the rebel forces in a press release.
“The two armies attack from Eritrea”
Kindeya Gebrehiwot, spokesperson for the Tigray rebelsAFP
Despite the succession of American, European and UN emissaries in Mekele, capital of Tigray, at the beginning of August, and “secret encounters” more recent in Djibouti and the Seychelles between the two enemy camps, the negotiations are at a standstill. The TPLF demands as a prerequisite for any real negotiation the total lifting of the humanitarian blockade of Tigray where 8 million people are in urgent need of food aid. The rebel movement also calls for the replacement of the African Union mediator, Olusegun Obasanjo, deemed too partisan.
The TPLF would also have refused the presence of Eritrea, its historical enemy., at the negotiating table. In addition to the risk of internationalization of the conflict, the Ethiopian army is fighting on several fronts internally: “The Ethiopian federal army has been engaged for several months in another conflict which opposes it to the Oromo liberation front, with massacres and burning villages”, notes researcher Medhi Labzaé, from the French Center for Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, interviewed by RFI.