General Berhanu Gula, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian Army, said that his country had entered an unexpected war against the rebellion in the Tigray region, pledging to quickly resolve the situation and prevent the confrontation from spreading to the center of the country.
General Berhanu added that troops were being mobilized from across the country to be sent to Tigray.
The Ethiopian Parliament unanimously approved in an extraordinary session the declaration of a state of emergency in the northern Tigray region.
On Wednesday, the Ethiopian Cabinet issued a decree declaring a state of emergency in the region for a period of 6 months, according to the constitution.
"Our country has entered into a war that he did not expect. This war is shameful, it is absurd," Berhanu Gula said during a press conference in the capital.
"We will make sure that the war does not extend to the center of the country and remains confined to Tigray," he said.
The announcement came in the wake of clashes on Wednesday between government forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered a response to "an attack launched by the front against government forces."
For his part, the President of the Tigray region, Debarsion Gebramikail, said that his forces had foiled a plan by the federal forces to use artillery and weapons stored there to attack the region.
"We will use artillery to defend Tigray. We will use it to repel any attack from any direction," he added on Tigray TV.
A relief source said that the sound of shelling and shooting reverberated in the region since the early hours of Thursday morning.
He added that about 24 soldiers are receiving treatment at a medical center near the border with the Amhara region, and the source did not disclose which party to the conflict the soldiers belonged to.
Total war
Countries in the region fear that the crisis will escalate into an all-out war under the rule of Abe, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending a decades-long conflict with Eritrea, but was forced to face an outbreak of ethnic unrest.
Tensions have escalated since last September, when Tigray held elections in defiance of the federal government, which described the vote as "illegal".
The tension reached its peak in the past few days, with the two sides trading accusations of planning a military conflict.
Sources said that behind the scenes efforts are being made to encourage the two parties to enter into talks under pressure from the African Union, but the initiative met with resistance from the authorities in Addis Ababa, who insist on the need to eliminate the threat posed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray.