Fighting erupted between government forces and Tigrayan rebels in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday, shattering a five-month truce between the warring sides.
The renewed warfare follows both sides repeatedly blaming the other for a lack of progress towards negotiations to end the brutal 21-month conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said government forces and their allies had launched a “large scale” offensive towards southern Tigray early Wednesday after a months-long lull in fighting.
But the Government Communication Service accused the TPLF of striking first, saying it had “destroyed the truce”.
“Disregarding the numerous peace options presented by the Ethiopian government, the armed wing of the terror group TPLF, pushing with its recent provocations starting 5 am (0200 GMT) today committed an attack” around southern Tigray, it said in a statement.
The rival claims could not be independently verified as access to northern Ethiopia is restricted, but there were reports of fighting around southern Tigray in areas bordering the Amhara and Afar regions.
“They launched the offensive early this morning around 5 am local time. We are defending our positions,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told AFP in Nairobi in a brief message.
He said on Twitter that the “large-scale” offensive was launched “against our positions in the southern front” by the Ethiopian army and special forces and militias from neighbouring Amhara.
The March truce paused fighting in a war that first began in November 2020, allowing a resumption of international aid to war-stricken Tigray after a three-month break.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the TPLF have been locked in a war of words in recent weeks even as both sides have raised the prospect of peace talks.
The two sides disagree on who should lead negotiations, and the TPLF also insists basic services must be restored to Tigray’s six million people before dialogue can begin.
Abiy’s government says any negotiations must be led by the African Union’s Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, who is leading the international push for peace, but the rebels want outgoing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta to mediate.
William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst for the International Crisis Group, said all parties should cease fighting before “a return to full-blown war”.
“This serious breach of the truce agreed earlier this year demonstrates the need for the two parties to arrange unconditional face-to-face negotiations as soon as these hostilities cease,” Davison said in a statement.
“It is also a deafening warning to the key international and regional actors that they must immediately ensure peace talks actually occur.”
