Tigray region leadership to be replaced as forces clash

NAIROBI, KENYA » Ethiopia moved to replace the leadership of the country’s defiant northern Tigray region, where deadly clashes between regional and federal government forces are fueling fears the major African power is sliding into civil war. Tigray’s leader told the African Union that the federal government was planning a “full-fledged military offensive.” Neither side appeared ready for the dialogue that experts say is needed to avert disaster in one of theworld’s most strategic yet vulnerable regions, the Horn of Africa. The upper house of parliament voted to set up an interim administration, giving Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the power to carry outmeasures against a Tigray leadership his government regards as illegal.