A months-long ceasefire between central government forces and soldiers from the separatist Tigray region of Ethiopia has broken down, according to residents and both parties on Wednesday.
Hopes for peace talks between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party in Tigray, have been severely damaged by the fighting. Each side accused the other of starting the conflict.
“At 5 am today (the TPLF) has attacked the Eastern Front; from Bisober, Zobel and Tekulshe direction … it has effectively broken the ceasefire,” the government’s communications service said in a statement.
The military said that the Tigrayan forces were preparing for an attack and covering their tracks by distributing false information about military movements the day before as social media erupted with reports of troops on the march.
The statement accused the TPLF of developing “pre-conflict propaganda” and claimed that it had become “open secret” that they were trying to implicate our forces.
The government was accused of breaking the truce by the military command of the Tigrayan forces, who claimed in a statement that they thought the offensive at Kobo, south of Tigray, was a diversion and that their forces were preparing for a significant onslaught from the west.
The peace process is being set up to fail, according to TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who also accused the government of trying to obstruct war crimes investigations, withhold essential services, and blockade the area in a statement to the world community.
The Ethiopian army shot down a jet delivering weapons to Tigray after it crossed Ethiopian airspace from neighbouring Sudan, according to Redwan Hussein, the prime minister’s national security adviser. The place where the plane was shot down was kept a secret by him.
Millions of people have been displaced by the violence in the second-most populous country in Africa, which has also resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and hunger in some areas of Tigray.
(with inputs from agencies)
