Fresh reports reaching the desk of Africa Today News, New York has revealed that some heavy fighting has erupted between some of the government forces and Tigrayan rebels in resumed conflicts in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday thereby shattering a five-month truce between the warring sides.
The renewed warfare would also be following the conflict that saw both sides repeatedly blaming each other for a lack of progress towards negotiations to end the brutal 21-month conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation.
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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 had hit a deadlock as they 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.