Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed to fight for victory in the year-long war in the north of the country, after Tigray fighters revealed that they had captured another strategic city and were considering marching on Addis Ababa, amid US and European concern.

Residents of Kombolcha - northern Ethiopia - spoke of the intensification of battles in the vicinity of the strategic city between the Ethiopian forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which announced - on Sunday - its control, the day after it announced the capture of the city of Disi.

"We will repel them with all our might," the Prime Minister said in front of government officials - in televised statements on Monday evening.

These two cities - neighboring the Amhara south of Tigray - are strategic and are located about 400 km north of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Ahmed added, "The challenges are many (...), but I can definitely tell you (...) that we will achieve a comprehensive victory."


Ahmed urged the Ethiopians - in a message he posted on Facebook - to use "any possible weapon (...) to repel, overthrow and bury the Tigray People's Liberation Front," and stressed that "death for Ethiopia is the duty of all of us."

On Monday, the Ethiopian Prime Minister accused foreign groups of participating in the fighting with the Tigray Front militants, according to the Ethiopian News Agency.

He said - during a briefing to senior government officials on the current situation - that white-skinned elements joined the Tigray Front militants in the fight against government forces, considering that this confirms the participation of foreign elements in the battles, without mentioning any other details.

stop fighting

In this context, European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell called on the warring parties to stop the fighting, "lift the siege on humanitarian aid and refrain from all hate speech."

"All parties must start ceasefire negotiations without preconditions," US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas Greenfield said on Twitter yesterday evening.


Yesterday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed his "concern" about the developments in Ethiopia, and called on Twitter to stop the fighting and "start ceasefire negotiations without preconditions."

"The continuation of the fighting prolongs the dire humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia. All parties must stop military operations and start ceasefire negotiations without preconditions," he added.

executions

The Ethiopian authorities accused the Tigray Front of "executing more than 100 young residents of Kombolcha", without providing additional details.

The TPLF did not respond to AFP's attempts to contact it.

The Government Communications Services Office said - in a tweet on Twitter - that "the terrorist Tigrayan People's Liberation Front group executed more than 100 young residents of Kombolcha in areas it infiltrated."


He added that the international community must not turn a blind eye to such atrocities.

The spread of fighting in Afar and Amhara has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, adding to the humanitarian plight.

The Amhara authorities estimated that at least 233,000 civilians fled the advance of the militants until last September and found refuge in Disi and Kombolcha.

The government of Amhara - where Kombolcha and Disi are located - issued a decree the day before yesterday, Sunday, ordering all institutions to suspend regular services and allocate their budgets and energy to the "survival campaign".

alliance

The day before yesterday, the Oromo Liberation Army (an armed Oromo armed group with which the Tigray People's Liberation Front allied last August) announced that its fighters had entered the towns of Kemis and Senbet, south of Kombolcha.


A spokesman for Tigray forces said they had joined forces from Oromo province who are also fighting the central government, adding that they are considering advancing to the capital.

Getachew Reda told Reuters, "We have joined the OLA/OLF, and if achieving our goals in Tigray will require that we advance to Addis Ababa, we will do so, but we are not saying that we are now advancing to Addis Ababa."

The developments in Ethiopia come about a year after clashes erupted on November 4, 2020, between the Ethiopian army and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, after government forces entered the region in response to an attack on an army base.

On November 28, 2020, Ethiopia announced the end of a "law enforcement" operation by controlling the entire region, despite reports of continued human rights violations in the region since then, where thousands of civilians were killed.

The conflict caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands, and the flight of more than 60,000 to Sudan, according to observers, while Khartoum says that their number has reached 71,488 people.