Fighting has broken out between Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan rebels in the Afar region, two humanitarian sources told AFP Wednesday, as rising tensions fuel fears of a new war.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fought a devastating civil war with the federal government in 2020-2022 that killed some 600,000 people, according to African Union estimates.
Sporadic clashes in recent months have raised fears of a return to war.
There has been fighting “since last night in Abala and Erebti between TPLF (the Tigray People’s Liberation Front) and federal forces. We are expecting it to expand. We just sent (a) truck with food to help the people displaced,” an NGO source in the northeastern region of Afar told AFP requesting anonymity.
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Abala is located in mountain ranges marking the border between Afar and Tigray. Erebti lies about a hundred kilometres (62 miles) by road from Abala, also inside Afar territory.
Another humanitarian source confirmed clashes in the two locations, as did a foreign security source in Ethiopia.
“The opposition has liberated Berhale, Erebti, Abaala, Megale, Dalul, Konoba in Afar region,” said a former high-ranking member of the TPLF who is still influential, adding that the federal forces were “fast retreating”.
The clashes come three days after the TPLF was announced as a member of a new alliance of anti-government armed groups from across the country.
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