Eritrea launches offensive over Tigrayan border

NAIROBI: Forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said troops from neighbouring Eritrea started a fullscale offensive on Tuesday and heavy fighting was taking place in several areas along the border.

Two aid workers also reported intense fighting along the border, including shelling into a displaced persons camp on the outskirts of the village of Ziban Gedena.

They did not say whether Eritrean troops were on the ground in Tigray.

If confirmed, the participation of Eritrean troops would mark an escalation in a conflict that was reignited last month ater the collapse of a ceasefire in place since March.

The US special envoy for the Horn of Africa,

Mike Hammer, said on Tuesday the United States was aware of Eritrean troops crossing into Ethiopia’s Tigray region and condemned it.

Eritrea had withdrawn its troops from most areas in Tigray last year ater they supported the Ethiopean military in earlier phases of a war against Tigrayan forces which erupted in November 2020.

“Eritrea is deploying its entire army as well as reservists. Our forces are heroically defending their positions,” Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said on Twiter.

Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Getachew said Ethiopian troops and special forces from the Amhara region to the south had also joined the offensive.

Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu, military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokesperson Billene Seyoum did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gizachew Muluneh, spokesperson for the Amhara regional government, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The two-year-old war in Tigray has already killed thousands, displaced millions and created a humanitarian disaster in northern Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government accuses the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition until Abiy came to power in 2018, of trying to reassert Tigrayan dominance over Ethiopia. The TPLF accuses Abiy of over-centralising power and oppressing Tigrayans.

On Saturday the Canadian government warned that Eritrea was mobilising armed forces due to the resumption of fighting in Tigray, where a ceasefire in place since March broke down on Aug. 24.

Eritrea’s Yemane confirmed over the weekend that some reservists were called up but said the government was not mobilising the entire population.