Airstrikes hit northern Ethiopia as govt, rebels clash: Sources

Airstrikes and artillery fire rocked northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region overnight into Monday, aid sources said, in clashes between federal government ‌and rebel forces that have raised fears of wider fighting. Air attacks killed at least 17 people northwest of Tigray’s capital Mekelle, which federal government forces took over the weekend, according to a bulletin circulated among humanitarian groups. The bulletin added that the government forces exchanged artillery fire with fighters loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front part of a rebel alliance ​aiming to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. Spokespeeson for Abiy’s office, the federal Ethiopian National Defence Force and the TPLF did not ​immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports, which Reuters could not confirm independently. Analysts say the fighting threatens to escalate into a wider conflict, with Ethiopia accusing neighbouring Eritrea and Sudan, and beyond them Egypt, of supporting the ​armed opposition. All three countries have denied this. Last week, Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a border war from 1998-2000, severed diplomatic ties over the ​allegations. On Sunday, the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia discussed the crisis during a meeting, according to two Egyptian security officials and one political official, speaking on condition of anonymity. They agreed to coordinate military and intelligence efforts if the conflict escalated to the borders Ethiopia shares with Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia, ​the sources added, without going into further detail The fighting since September 23 is the worst escalation of violence since a 2020-2022 civil ​war in Tigray that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. —Reuters—Read More