Four days after the launch of a military offensive against the Tigray region in the north of the country, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sacked the army chief, General Adem Mohammed, his secretariat announced.

The deputy chief of the army, General Berhanu Jula, "has been promoted to the rank of chief of the army," said a statement from the Prime Minister's office, without specifying the reasons for the dismissal of his predecessor.

This change in the head of the Ethiopian armed forces comes as the government on Wednesday launched a military operation against the Tigray region, accused by Addis Ababa of secessionist tendencies.

Despite a total blackout on military operations, on the ground are appearing the first signs of fighting which seems to be fairly heavy between the Ethiopian and Tigrayan armed forces. 

Wounded as a result of the fighting

Around 100 Ethiopian soldiers have been admitted with gunshot wounds in a hospital in the Amhara region, which borders Tigray, a local doctor told AFP on Sunday.

At Sanja hospital, north of Gondar, about sixty kilometers from Tigray, "we had 98 cases, all from the national army", assured this doctor on condition of anonymity, without specifying the dates of the admissions of wounded soldiers.

The doctor said he had not recorded any fatalities but more seriously injured were referred to larger hospitals in Gondar and elsewhere.

On the road leading from Gondar to Tigray, AFP correspondents noted the frequent circulation of ambulances carrying the wounded. 

In addition, according to a United Nations information notice released on Sunday, "an airstrike targeted Mekele", the capital of Tigray, near the airport.

"A single explosion was noted, as well as a response from the ground," adds the United Nations report.

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A United Nations official told AFP on Saturday on condition of anonymity that, according to an internal report, the Tigrayan armed forces were holding the Ethiopian army headquarters in Makele.

The Makele military base is one of the most important in Ethiopia, a legacy of years of war with Eritrea, which borders Tigray.

Ethiopian public media also quoted General Berhanu Jula on Sunday as saying that federal forces had "totally destroyed the heavy weapons of the traitors clique", in reference to the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF), which has, for nearly from 30 years and until the advent of Abiy Ahmed in 2018, dominated power structures in Ethiopia.

Four villages in Tigray "captured", according to army chief

Promoted to chief of the army on Sunday, the senior officer added that Ethiopian soldiers had "completely captured" four villages in western Tigray where the fighting was concentrated. 

Various diplomatic and humanitarian sources have also reported military activities on the main axes connecting Tigray to the Amhara region and reported fighting and artillery fire on the road leading to Humera, on the borders of Sudan and Eritrea. , in western Tigray.

On Saturday, the Ethiopian parliament had dismissed the regional parliament and the government of Tigray, which retaliated by calling the measure a "joke" and accusing the prime minister of wanting to install "puppets" in the region.

Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2019 in particular for ending the state of war with Eritrea, Abiy Ahmed announced on Wednesday the launch of these military operations in Tigray in retaliation for the attack on Ethiopian military bases there. 

The tension between Addis Ababa and Tigray - whose leaders consider themselves marginalized by the new power - had particularly increased since the organization in September of regional elections not recognized by the central power.

The military escalation raises fears of a conflict that could threaten the already fragile stability of the second most populous country on the continent with more than 100 million inhabitants and, beyond, the entire Horn of Africa.

With AFP

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