Around two o'clock on Wednesday morning local time, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that he had issued an order for a military attack on the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPFL).

This after TPFL forces, according to him, have attacked the government's military bases in the area and tried to steal weapons, reports the Ethiopian news site The Awash Post.

According to diplomatic sources to Reuters, it was "heavy fighting" that broke out.

"Forced to attack"

Abiy Ahmed, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, writes in a Facebook post that the government side had no choice but to attack:

"The cup has overflowed with this morning's attacks and the federal regime is therefore forced into a military confrontation."

The relationship between the regime and the TPFL has become increasingly tense since September when Tigray held local elections which Prime Minister Ahmed's government believes are illegal, writes Reuters.

According to TT, TPFL leader Debrestion Gebremichael said on Monday that the regime was planning attacks as punishment for the regional elections.

Not ready to negotiate

Tigray is one of Ethiopia's richest and most powerful states, but since Abiy Ahmed took office in 2018, its influence has diminished.

Many senior officials from the area have been fired from the central government, which the regime believes is a measure against widespread corruption.

The TPFL, for its part, believes that it is the government's way to quell the conflict, which is largely about Tigray being dissatisfied with Ahmed's reforms that have made the government system more uniform than before, where states had greater self-determination. 

Redwan Hussein, a spokesman for the government's newly formed crisis group, told Reuters that it was the TPFL regime that saw it as "the enemy", not the state of Tigray itself.

When asked if the government is prepared to negotiate with TPFL, Hussein answers that it is not relevant at the moment.  

TPFL leader Debrestion Gebremichael says according to the BBC that Tigray wants to avoid war, but that it is ready to defend the region if necessary:

- We have prepared our army, our militia and our special forces.

We want to avert a war as much as possible, but if we have to fight, we are ready to win.