Eritrean and Ethiopian forces began an offensive in four areas in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, a senior member of the dissident Tigray People’s Liberation Front said.
(Bloomberg) — Eritrean and Ethiopian forces began an offensive in four areas in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, a senior member of the dissident Tigray People’s Liberation Front said.
The attacks started early on Thursday morning in northwestern Tigray, Getachew Reda said on Twitter. Eritrea’s information ministry and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s spokeswoman, Billene Seyoum, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment sent by text message and email respectively.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are “coordinating their efforts to turn this into a regional conflagration,” Getachew said. “We are ready to defend ourselves.”
Eritrea joining the conflict would signal an escalation in the conflict in Tigray, a week after the eruption of clashes that ended a five-month humanitarian cease-fire. Last week, Ethiopia’s air force said it shot down a plane ferrying weapons that crossed the border from neighboring Sudan, whose government has been at odds with Abiy’s administration over Ethiopia’s construction of a massive hydropower dam.
Read: Ethiopia Says It Downed Arms-Laden Plane Crossing From Sudan
The resumption of fighting will hamper efforts by Ethiopia’s government to improve relations with international financiers, as it awaits an International Monetary Fund loan amid efforts to revamp its debt. Yields on Ethiopia’s $1 billion of Eurobonds due in 2024 have surged more than 500 basis since the conflict resumed on Aug. 24. The bonds traded at 38.04% by 08:50 a.m. in London on Thursday.
Eritrea is a long time foe of the TPLF, which effectively ruled Ethiopia from 1991 until 2018. The two nations went to war in 1998 over a border dispute. That conflict officially ended in 2018, when Abiy came to office and signed a peace deal with Eritrea, and won the Nobel Peace Prize as a result. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, then backed Ethiopia when Abiy ordered an incursion into Tigray after TPLF forces attacked a federal army base.
The US on Thursday called for an immediate end to the latest hostilities.
“We remain deeply concerned at the resumption of fighting and the lives that it puts at risk,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Getachew said heavy artillery is being used around Shiraro town close to Eritrea’s border. The area flanks Western Tigray, a flat swathe of fertile farmland bordering Sudan that was seized by forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region and Eritrea soon after the civil war began in November 2020.
Tigray forces have insisted Western Tigray be given back to the region before peace talks can commence with Abiy’s government. Taking control of the town of Humera on the border with Sudan is also considered highly strategic by the Tigrayans because it can open up supply corridors and allows them to potentially launch their own offensive on Eritrea.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
