Ethiopia announces the seizure of a town in the Afar region after fighting with the TPLF

Ethiopian Army rejects Sudan’s accusations of border attack

MADRID, 29 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

In recent hours, the Ethiopian security forces have taken control of the town of Chifra, located in the Afar region, as part of the fighting in recent weeks against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF ).

According to the information provided by the Ethiopian television channel EBC, the town, considered of strategic importance and located near the border with the Amhara region, has been taken in a joint offensive by the Army and the Afar special forces.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has assured in the last hours that he will fulfill his promise to lead the advances of the security forces and has stressed that the government forces are advancing towards Bati and Kombolcha, as reported by the Fana television network .

Abiy himself announced on Friday that the Army had seized control of the town of Asagita, in the Afar region, from the TPLF in his first appearance from the front after announcing days before that he would travel to the battlefield to lead military operations. .

However, the TPLF was skeptical about the announcement of Abiy, which last week delegated its functions to its deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen, after traveling on the ground, and assured that the group “has no idea who is in charge of which front is “.

Abiy, who was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for the peace agreement with Eritrea, had stated late Monday that he would join the Army to defend the country “from internal and external enemies”, while appealed to Ethiopians to join the Armed Forces to confront the advances of the TPLF.

The conflict in Ethiopia began on November 4, 2020 when Abiy ordered a military offensive in retaliation for the attack on the Army base in Mekelle after months of tensions between the TPLF and the central government over the postponement of the parliamentarians, finally held. in June and in which Abiy achieved a landslide victory against calls for a boycott and a lack of voting in several areas – including Tigray – due to insecurity.

However, the TPLF made important advances in June that allowed it to recover Mekelle, after which Abiy announced a unilateral ceasefire citing humanitarian reasons, rejected by the group, which expanded its offensive to the adjacent regions of Amhara and Afar, raising fears a spread of the war to the rest of the country.

REJECT SUDAN’S ACCUSATIONS

In another vein, the head of the Ethiopian Army, Birhanu Jula, has rejected Sudan’s accusations about the death of several of its soldiers in an attack by Addis Ababa troops on the border, according to the chain of ESAT TV television.

Birhanu has stressed that there is no reason to attack Sudan and added that the country is “not in a position” to carry out such offensive actions against the neighboring country amid the fighting against the TPLF, while at the same time bet on dialogue to resolve tensions.

Since 2020, both countries have been the protagonists of an increase in tensions over sovereignty over an area on the border. Already in February the Ethiopian government criticized Sudan’s “provocative behavior” and warned that a conflict “will only cause colossal collateral damage and endanger the well-being” of both countries.

The governments of both countries began work on the demarcation of their border at the end of 2020 after the incidents, which revolve around the presence of Ethiopian farmers in Sudanese territory, a fact that was tacitly tolerated by former President Omar Hasan al Bashir.

The Sudanese authorities that emerged from the agreement after the coup that overthrew Al Bashir in April 2019 already maintained a different position and demanded the departure of these farmers from the area, which has caused an increase in tensions with the Ethiopian authorities.