ETHIOPIA’s military will carry out further operations in the Tigray region, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said today, as the conflict between Addis Ababa and the regional government continued. 

The conflict flared on Wednesday after Abiy alleged that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had carried out a deadly attack on a military base near Tigray’s capital Mekele. 

Communications were cut off in the region around the time that Mr Ahmed announced the military action, making it difficult to verify the federal government’s accounts.

Abiy’s administration has also declared a six-month state of emergency in Tigray and the region’s airspace has been closed.

A TPLF statement on Tigray TV accused the federal government of deploying troops to “cow the people of Tigray into submission by force.”

Mekele was calm this morning, according to the Associated Press (AP), but sources told Reuters that heavy shelling had been heard elsewhere in the region since the early hours. 

A humanitarian aid source added that nearly two dozen soldiers had been treated at a clinic near the border with the Amhara region, without saying what side of the conflict the soldiers were on. 

United States Institute of Peace senior adviser Payton Knopf told AP: “Certainly there is fighting, but I don’t think anyone can credibly assert who attacked who first.”

He questioned why the TPLF would start raiding a command post as they are “not lacking for weaponry.”

Aid organisations and human rights groups are pleading for the restoration of communications links and warning of a humanitarian disaster if hundreds of thousands of people flee fighting in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Amnesty International director for east and southern Africa Deprose Muchena said: “The decision to send the military not only signals an escalation in tensions between the federal government and Tigray regional authorities but also puts many lives at risk and threatens a downward spiral for human rights in Ethiopia.”

The organisation called on both authorities to ensure that international human rights laws are respected in the region and that people’s lives are protected. 

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s military and governing coalition before Abiy took office in 2018 and announced sweeping political changes. 

He won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for ending a 20-year conflict with Eritrea, but his reforms have been criticised for opening ethnic grievances and the TPLF left the coalition last year, saying that it had been marginalised.