The Ethiopian Tigray Liberation Front said the army of neighboring Eritrea launched an "all-out offensive" on Tuesday to support government forces.

In contrast, the Ethiopian government accused the MILF of extrajudicial killing of approximately 3,600 people in 5 months.

The front has been fighting against the Ethiopian federal forces and their allies for nearly two years.

Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front, said in a tweet on Twitter that heavy fighting was taking place in many areas along the border, and that the TPLF forces were defending their positions against the Eritrean army's attack.

Getachew added that Ethiopian government forces and special forces from the Amhara region to the south also joined the offensive.

Last Saturday, the Canadian government warned that Eritrea was mobilizing its armed forces as fighting resumed in Tigray.

If confirmed, the attack would mean an escalation in a war that has already displaced millions and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia.

The conflict renewed in Tigray on August 24, in violation of the ceasefire that has been in place since last March.

And the Tigray forces announced earlier this September that they are ready for a ceasefire, and that they will accept a peace process led by the African Union.

Eritrean forces had previously entered Tigray region to support the Ethiopian army in November 2020, before withdrawing from most areas last year.


government accusations

On the other hand, the Ethiopian government on Tuesday accused the Tigray People's Liberation Front of extrajudicial killing of approximately 3,600 people in the northern states between September 2021 and January 2022.

Last year, the ministerial committee that published the report today was formed after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission in a joint investigation blamed the warring parties for human rights abuses.

According to the report, the Tigray People's Liberation Front killed 3,598 civilians in the northern states of Amhara and Afar.

The report added that 1,315 people were wounded during the conflict in the mentioned period, while the Tigray Front fighters raped 2,212 girls.

The conflict in Tigray region, northern Ethiopia, began in November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent federal forces to the region to control the local authorities of the Tigray People's Liberation Front after it was accused of attacking an army barracks.

The conflict has killed thousands of people in Africa's second most populous country after Nigeria.