The army chief accuses Eritrea of financing and supporting armed groups to weaken Ethiopia.
Ethiopia’s federal army says it is handling growing tensions in the country’s north with restraint, as fears grow that Ethiopia is heading toward a new civil war.
In his first comments on 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 financing and supporting armed groups aimed at weakening Ethiopia, describing the “Tsimdo” alliance as an extension of a long-standing pattern of hostile alliances, which he said cannot confront the state without external support.
Eritrea, fearing that landlocked Ethiopia would seek to invade to gain access to the Red Sea, has denied the accusations.
Fighting spread from Tigray to neighboring Afar and Amhara regions after seven armed groups announced an alliance, the Ethiopian People’s Forces Alliance for Survival, committed to overthrowing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.
In Afar, the latest fighting took place around Abala, where the army is trying to prevent rebels from taking control of the country.
Furthermore, in North Wollo, an area of Amhara bordering Tigray, the army announced Thursday that it had killed 272 Tigrayan fighters and wounded 260 during a counter-offensive, reporting heavy losses for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The TPLF’s Tigray Army said the federal government had launched a “large-scale offensive” involving infantry, mechanized units and drones.
Abdisalam Balema, a member of the TPLF central committee, told Al Jazeera that the situation had become an “all-out war”.
Fighting also continued around Sama, Soqota and Raya Alamata, with government forces apparently closing in on the town of Alamata.
The army command has said it prefers a strategy of “strategic calm” to a full-scale military confrontation, arguing that popular support for the Tigray Front is waning and its leaders are divided.
Internet access was reportedly cut off in northern Ethiopia on Friday, a day after the UN said it was alarmed by reports of drone use against civilians in the region.
The renewed fighting has strained the 2022 Pretoria accord, which ended a brutal two-year civil war in Tigray. It comes weeks after Washington lifted sanctions on Ethiopia and Eritrea linked to atrocities in the last war, saying the “national emergency… has expired.”
It is the most serious challenge yet to the deal, raising fears of a broader regional conflict that could draw in armed groups from across Ethiopia.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the Ethiopian president sought to portray the country as a force for regional stability, accusing unnamed outside actors of meddling in Ethiopian affairs while emphasizing Addis Ababa’s role in supporting peace efforts in neighboring Sudan.
Alemayehu Weldemariam, a law professor at Indiana University, told Al Jazeera that the federal government is largely responsible for the failure of the Pretoria agreement.
“This war has been in the works for some time now. Much of the cessation of hostilities provisions (in the 2022 deal) have been primarily sabotaged by the federal government itself,” he said, citing the fuel, service and liquidity restrictions imposed on Tigray, and the government’s failure to establish the interim administration promised by the deal.
“What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement turned out to be permanent,” with Tigray having since been excluded from national elections, he added.
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