Tuesday, November 02, 2021

BETTER A CONFEDERATION OF REGIONS THEN A COUNTRY
Tigrayan and Oromo forces say they have seized towns on Ethiopian highway

Sun, October 31, 2021

ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI (Reuters) - Two different groups fighting Ethiopia's central government said they had seized control of towns on Sunday as the prime minister appealed for citizens to take up arms.

The spreading conflict threatens to further destabilise Africa's second most populous nation, once considered a stable Western ally in a volatile region.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged citizens to join the fight against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party in control of the rebellious northern region of Tigray, after Tigrayan forces said they took another town on a highway linking the capital of the landlocked nation to the port of Djibouti.

"Our people should march...with any weapon and resources they have to defend, repulse and bury the terrorist TPLF," Abiy said in a Facebook post on Sunday night.

CLAIMS OF GAINS

TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said Tigrayan forces have seized the town of Kombolcha and its airport in the Amhara region. He spoke to Reuters by phone from an unknown location.

On Sunday night, insurgents from Oromiya, Ethiopia's most populous region, said they had also seized the town of Kemise, 53 km (33 miles) south of Kombolcha on the same highway to the capital Addis Ababa.

Odaa Tarbii, a spokesperson for the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), said the group had taken Kemise, 325 km (200 miles) from Addis Ababa, and were engaging government forces.

The OLA is an outlawed splinter group of the Oromo Liberation Front, a formerly banned opposition group that returned from exile after Abiy took office in 2018. The Oromo are Ethiopia's largest ethnic group; many of their political leaders have been imprisoned under Abiy's government.

In August the OLA and the TPLF announced a military alliance https://www.reuters.com/world/ethiopias-tigray-forces-seek-new-military-alliance-2021-08-11, heaping pressure on the central government.

Central government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, Ethiopian military spokesperson Col. Getnet Adane and Amhara regional spokesperson Gizachew Muluneh did not immediately respond requests for comment on the TPLF and the OLA's claims.

Reuters could not independently verify Getachew's claim as phone lines in Kombolcha appeared to be down on Sunday. Reuters could not reach anyone in Kemise.

On Sunday, the Amhara regional government said in a statement "all government institutions must suspend their regular activities and should direct their budget and all their resources to the survival campaign....officials on every level should mobilise and lead...to the front."

They announced a curfew of 8 p.m. and urged citizens to provide private vehicles to support the campaign.

YEAR-LONG WAR

War broke nearly a year ago between federal troops and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was appointed in 2018. The conflict has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.

Tigrayan forces were initially beaten back, but recaptured most of Tigray in July. They then pushed into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ethiopian-families-fleeing-fighting-describe-hunger-rape-amhara-2021-10-18 more civilians.

Regional forces from Amhara have fought alongside the military in Tigray. The two regions of Amhara and Tigray have a long-running boundary dispute over farmland in Western Tigray, currently under the control of the Amhara administration.

In mid-October, the Tigrayan forces said the military had mounted an offensive to push them out of Amhara. The military has accused the Tigrayan forces of starting the recent round of fighting.

Tigrayan forces have said they will keep fighting until Amhara forces leave the heavily fortified area of Western Tigray, and until the government permits the free movement of aid into the rest of Tigray.

The United Nations has previously accused the government of a de facto blockade of Tigray, where the U.N. says around 400,000 people are living in famine conditions. The government denies blocking aid.

(Reporting by Addis Ababa and Nairobi newsrooms; editing by David Evans and Angus MacSwan)

Ethiopia: Tigrayan forces claim control of major northern towns

Ethiopian authorities called on people to join the armed struggle against the Tigrayan insurgents. Amhara government officials declared a state of emergency in the region.



The claimed takeover would be a major advance by the TPLF into central Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government on Sunday appealed for citizens to take arms against insurgent groups that claimed to have taken control of key towns in the year-long conflict.

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) claimed it had captured the town of Kombolcha on the main road that links landlocked Ethiopia to the port in Djibouti.

Additionally, insurgents from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) also claimed they defeated government forces in Kemise, 325 kilometers (200 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa.

What have the TPLF said?

TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said in a post on Twitter that Tigrayan forces were "firmly in control of Kombolcha" and its airport on Sunday.

He said the TPLF "will cooperate with the UN in managing their aid efforts in Tigray and Amhara including by protecting their warehouses." The UN said the government had imposed a blockade on aid supplies to the war-torn regions.



If confirmed, it would be a major advance by the TPLF into central Ethiopia after it took most of Tigray from government forces in June. Kombolcha is located 375 kilometers from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Independent confirmation of the reports was hard to come by during a media blackout in the north of the country.

Odaa Tarbii, OLA spokesperson, said the group had taken nearby Kemise 53 km (33 miles) south of Kombolcha.

OLA is an outlawed splinter group from the Oromo Liberation Front, which formed an alliance with the TPLF in August.
What was the government's response?

The Ethiopian government has so far denied losing Kombolcha to the insurgents, insisting that it is still fighting for the key town.

Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu said that Ethiopian forces were in gun battles with the TPLF in Kombolocha and in the nearby town of Dessie, which are both in the Amhara region.

But Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a Facebook post told Ethiopians to use "any types of weapons... to block the destructive TPLF, to overturn it and bury it."

Ethiopian air forces on Sunday bombed a "military training facility (that) served as a recruiting and training center," an Ethiopian government spokesperson said on Twitter.


Ethiopian government aerial attacks like this one have hit hard at the heart of Tigray

The Amhara Regional State Council declared a state of emergency, imposing an 8 p.m. curfew and ordering all government institutions to "direct their budget and all their resources to the survival campaign."

It ordered officials to "mobilize and lead... to the front" and urged citizens to provide private vehicles to help out in the campaign.
United States 'alarmed'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern over reports of Tigrayan forces taking over the two cities.

"Continued fighting prolongs the dire humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia. All parties must stop military operations and begin ceasefire negotiations without preconditions," Blinken said Monday.

Washington has previously called on Tigrayan fighters to withdraw from the Amhara and Afar regions in northern Ethiopia and urged "all parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate unhindered humanitarian access," he added.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has accused the government of carrying out a de facto blockade of Tigray.

The UN says around 400,000 people are living in famine conditions in the Tigray region. The government has denied blocking aid.

jc/aw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

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