Ethiopia’s army promises restraint amid fears of new civil war

Army chief accuses Eritrea of funding and supporting armed groups to weaken Ethiopia.

Ethiopia faces renewed war as armed groups launch offensive

Ethiopia’s federal military has said it is handling rising tensions in the country’s north with restraint, as fears grow that Ethiopia could be heading towards another civil war.

In his first comments on the recent military developments, Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Berhanu Jula said the army was responding to what he called provocations from the Tigray front with “wisdom and restraint”.

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He accused Eritrea of funding and supporting armed groups to weaken Ethiopia, describing the “Tsimdo” alliance as an extension of a longstanding pattern of hostile alliances, which he said cannot confront the state without outside backing.

Eritrea, wary that landlocked Ethiopia may be seeking to invade it to gain access to the Red Sea, denied the accusations.

The fighting has spread from Tigray into neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions after seven armed groups announced an alliance , the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, committed to removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.

In Afar, the latest battles have taken place around Abala, where the military has been trying to prevent rebels from seizing control.

Separately, in North Wollo, a zone of Amhara bordering Tigray, the army said on Thursday it had killed 272 Tigrayan fighters and wounded 260 in a counter-offensive, reporting heavy losses for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Members of the armed forces ride a military vehicle as fighting across Ethiopia intensifies amid fears of full-scale civil war [AP]

The TPLF’s Tigray Army said the federal government had launched a “full-scale offensive” involving infantry, mechanised units and drones.

Abdisalam Balema, a TPLF central committee member, told Al Jazeera the situation had become a “full war”.

Fighting has also continued around Sama, Soqota and Raya Alamata, with government forces reportedly closing in on the town of Alamata.

The army command said it prefers a strategy of “strategic calm” over a large-scale military confrontation , arguing the Tigray front’s popular support is dwindling and its leadership divided.

Internet access was reportedly cut across northern Ethiopia on Friday, a day after the UN said it was alarmed by reports of drones being used against civilians there.

The renewed fighting has put the 2022 Pretoria Agreement, which ended a brutal two-year civil war in Tigray, under severe strain. It comes weeks after Washington lifted sanctions on Ethiopia and Eritrea tied to atrocities from the last war, saying the “national emergency … has expired”.

It marks the most serious challenge yet to that agreement, raising fears of a wider regional conflict that could draw in armed groups from across Ethiopia.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, Ethiopia’s president sought to portray the country as a force for regional stability, accusing unnamed external actors of meddling in Ethiopia’s affairs while highlighting Addis Ababa’s role in supporting peace efforts in neighbouring Sudan.

Alemayehu Weldemariam, a professor of law at Indiana University, told Al Jazeera that the federal government bears much of the blame for the collapse of the Pretoria Agreement.

“This war has been in the making for a while now. Much of the provisions in the cessation of hostilities [in the 2022 agreement] were primarily sabotaged by the federal government itself,” he said, citing fuel, service and cash restrictions imposed on Tigray, and the government’s failure to set up the interim administration the deal had promised.

“What was supposed to be an interim arrangement turned out to be permanent,” with Tigray excluded from national elections since, he added.

陆军总司令指责厄立特里亚资助和支持武装团体，以削弱埃塞俄比亚。

埃塞俄比亚面临新一轮战争，武装团体发动攻势

埃塞俄比亚联邦军方表示，他们正在以克制的态度处理该国北部日益紧张的局势，因为人们越来越担心埃塞俄比亚可能再次陷入内战。

陆军参谋长贝尔哈努·朱拉元帅在首次就近期军事发展发表评论时表示，陆军正在以“智慧和克制”回应他所称的来自提格雷前线的挑衅行为。

列表 1/3：年轻男子因担心被强征入伍而逃离提格雷

列表 2/3：埃塞俄比亚北部战乱引发对停电和封锁的担忧

列表 3（共 3 项）：埃塞俄比亚新成立的反叛联盟面临一个老问题

他指责厄立特里亚资助和支持武装团体削弱埃塞俄比亚，并将“齐姆多”联盟描述为长期敌对联盟模式的延伸，并表示如果没有外部支持，这些联盟无法与国家对抗。

厄立特里亚担心内陆国家埃塞俄比亚可能企图入侵其以获取红海出海口，因此否认了这些指控。

在七个武装团体宣布结成联盟——埃塞俄比亚人民生存力量联盟——致力于推翻总理阿比·艾哈迈德的政府之后，战斗已从提格雷蔓延到邻近的阿法尔和阿姆哈拉地区。

在阿法尔，最近的战斗发生在阿巴拉附近，军方一直在努力阻止叛军夺取控制权。

另外，在与提格雷州接壤的阿姆哈拉州北部沃洛地区，军方周四表示，在一次反攻中，他们打死了 272 名提格雷武装分子，打伤了 260 人，提格雷人民解放阵线（提人阵）遭受了重大损失。

在埃塞俄比亚，随着战斗愈演愈烈，人们担心会爆发全面内战，武装部队成员乘坐军车。[美联社]

提格雷人民解放阵线（TPLF）的提格雷军表示，联邦政府发动了一场“全面进攻”，动用了步兵、机械化部队和无人机。

提格雷人阵中央委员会成员阿卜迪萨拉姆·巴莱马告诉半岛电视台，局势已演变为一场“全面战争”。

萨马、索科塔和拉亚阿拉马塔周边地区也继续发生战斗，据报道，政府军正在逼近阿拉马塔镇。

军方指挥部表示，他们更倾向于采取“战略冷静”的策略，而不是大规模军事对抗，理由是提格雷阵线的民众支持正在减少，而且其领导层也存在分歧。

据报道，周五埃塞俄比亚北部地区的互联网接入被切断。此前一天，联合国表示，有报道称该国使用无人机袭击平民，对此感到震惊。

战火重燃，令2022年结束提格雷地区长达两年残酷内战的《比勒陀利亚协议》岌岌可危。就在几周前，华盛顿刚刚解除了因上次内战暴行而对埃塞俄比亚和厄立特里亚实施的制裁，称“国家紧急状态……已经结束”。

这标志着该协议面临迄今为止最严峻的挑战，引发了人们对可能将埃塞俄比亚各地武装团体卷入的更大规模区域冲突的担忧。

埃塞俄比亚总统在联合国大会上发表讲话，试图将该国描绘成地区稳定的力量，指责未具名的外部势力干涉埃塞俄比亚内政，同时强调亚的斯亚贝巴在支持邻国苏丹和平努力方面发挥的作用。

印第安纳大学法学教授阿莱马耶胡·韦尔德马里亚姆告诉半岛电视台，联邦政府对《比勒陀利亚协议》的崩溃负有很大责任。

“这场战争酝酿已久。2022 年协议中关于停止敌对行动的许多条款主要是由联邦政府自己破坏的，”他说道，并列举了对提格雷州实施的燃料、服务和现金限制，以及政府未能建立协议承诺的临时行政机构。

“原本应该是一项临时安排，结果却变成了永久性安排，”他补充说，“自那以后，提格雷就被排除在全国选举之外。”