ADDIS ABABA — Fighting was reported in a
volatile area of northern
Ethiopia on Monday, local sources said, despite
urgent international appeals for a halt to the renewed hostilities between
government forces and Tigrayan rebels.
اضافة اعلان
The warring sides have accused each other of
launching attacks last Wednesday that torpedoed a five-month truce and dealt a
blow to hopes for a peaceful resolution to the brutal conflict in
Africa’s second
most populous nation.
On Monday, clashes were reported in the area around
the town of Kobo, which lies in the Amhara region just south of Tigray and fell
into the hands of rebel fighters at the weekend, prompting many residents to
take flight.
“There is heavy fighting nearby. I was hearing the
sounds of heavy weaponry starting from morning to around three pm,” one Kobo
resident told AFP on condition of anonymity after fleeing to Woldiya about 50km
further south.
The resident said many people were flocking from
nearby areas to the town, while ambulances were ferrying the wounded to medical
facilities inside Woldiya or further afield.
“There is currently an air of uncertainty in Woldiya
although it’s slightly calmer than yesterday,” the resident said, adding that
the town was currently under a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
The government of Prime Minister
Abiy Ahmed had
announced Saturday that federal forces had pulled back from Kobo in order to
avoid “mass casualties”.
In turn, the
Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which
has been fighting government forces and their allies for almost 22 months, said
it had captured a number of towns and cities in a counter-offensive.
The various claims could not be independently
verified as access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted.
A diplomatic source said there were clashes in an
area about halfway between Kobo and Woldiya on Monday, while a humanitarian
source reported “heavy fighting” around the Zobel mountains southeast of Kobo.
On Friday, as conflict on the ground escalated, an
air strike on Tigray’s capital Mekele killed at least four people including two
children, an official at the city’s biggest hospital told AFP.
Tigrai TV, a local network, put the death toll at
seven, including three children.
The international community has voiced deep alarm
about the resumption of fighting in a conflict that has already caused the
deaths of untold numbers of civilians and led to a desperate humanitarian
crisis in northern Ethiopia.
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