A new front opens in Ethiopia between the Afar and Somali regions in the North East
The presidency of the Somali region, on the heights of Jigjiga.
RFI / Vincent Dublange
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
As fighting continues between government forces and Tigrayan rebels, it is a new cause for concern for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed: a new front opened last weekend between Afars and Issas.
It is a strategic and disputed sector, between the Afar and Somali regions.
The Somali authorities accuse the Afar militiamen of having committed a massacre in a town, rekindling an already long-standing conflict between these two neighboring peoples of the North-East.
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The battlefield is a long corridor crossing the Afar region from south to north, a vital road connecting the federal capital Addis Ababa and the regional capital Semera. Several localities inhabited by Issas, therefore Somalis, are along this road, which runs along the Afar side of the border of the Somali region. And it was one of them, Gedamayitu, that Afar regional forces attacked on Saturday, according to several official sources. No assessment could be established from an independent source, but the Somalis speak of "
hundreds of dead
".
For years the Issas inhabiting this corridor have been demanding their attachment to the Somali region, sometimes with arms in hand.
But this time,
this hotbed of violence rekindles
as the Afars supporting the federal army also face the advance of the Tigrayan rebellion, a few tens of kilometers away in the West.
The Tigrayans seek to cut the supply route between Addis Ababa and Djibouti, vital for the government and the federal army.
However, the road where Gedamayitu is located is an alternative route to Djibouti.
This is also the case for the train connecting the Ethiopian and Djiboutian capitals.
But it is, too, cut now, because of the opening of this new front between Afars and Somalis.
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Ethiopia