The Ethiopian armed forces and their allies have launched a “final” ground offensive against Tigrayan loyalist forces, leaders from the northern region said, as Addis Ababa seeks to end an almost year-old conflict.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, which ruled the country for three decades until the selection of prime minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018 and has been engaged in a war with the government since November, said Abiy’s “final offensive” was in its second day.
“Thousands have already perished in the latest round of [this] reckless campaign,” said Getachew Reda, a senior member of the TPLF, on Tuesday. On Monday, he said the “offensive” was taking place in the Amhara region, where the war has spread in recent months.
The Financial Times was unable to independently verify his claims. But people close to the Ethiopian government have said that federal troops have been regrouping and rearming in recent months and were waiting for the rainy season to come to an end before engaging in battle.
Asked if an offensive was under way, Billene Seyoum, Abiy’s spokeswoman, said that the government “has a responsibility to protect its citizens in all parts of the country from any acts of terrorism. The government of Ethiopia will continue to counter the TPLF’s destruction, violence and killings in the Amhara region and elsewhere.”
Thousands of people are believed to have been killed and more than 2m have fled their homes since a civil war erupted in November in Tigray when Abiy, a Nobel Peace laureate, sent troops to quell unrest in the northernmost region after what he said was an attack on Ethiopian forces by troops loyal to the TPLF.
While the prime minister had promised swiftly to restore law and order, and took over most of Tigray in late November, the war has become a protracted and gruesome conflict that has sparked a humanitarian crisis pushing hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions, according to the UN and USAID.
After pro-TPLF fighters retook the regional capital Mekelle in June, the federal army largely withdrew, and the government called a unilateral ceasefire. In August, Abiy urged “all capable Ethiopians” to join national and regional armed forces “to halt the destruction of the treasonous and terrorist TPLF . . . once and for all”.
On Monday, the TPLF accused Addis Ababa of “fielding hundreds of thousands of regular and irregular fighters” who are “supported heavy artilleries, tanks, rockets, drones and fighter jets”. The war has also ensnared troops and militias from other Ethiopian regions, particularly Amhara, as well as neighbouring Eritrea, and the US has raised the prospects of sanctions if all warring factions do not end hostilities.
Abiy was inaugurated for another term last week after winning his first electoral test in June.
