Published on : 27/08/2022 – 22:58
In Ethiopia, in the rebel province of Tigray, tension is rising the day after the deadly aerial bombardment that hit a kindergarten on Friday August 26.
We begin to know a little more about friday’s strike : The kindergarten hit by the Ethiopian air force is in downtown Mekele, just behind the palace-museum of Emperor Yohannes IV, according to satellite photos. It is not known, however, whether other buildings were affected in the area.
The federal government claims that the Tigrayan authorities are speeding up preparations for a resumption of war, while in Mekele, regional president Debretsion Gebremichael accuses Addis Ababa of “ expand its genocidal project ».
In a statement, the very secret President of Tigray Debretsion Gebremichael added that the Ethiopian air force, responsible for the bombardment, had also struck the south of the region, not far from the front line, in Mehoni. Military observers also evoke troop movements everywhere in Tigray, and in particular in this sensitive sector, around the city of Kobo, inside the neighboring state of Amhara, where Ethiopian troops had been seen. in recent days heading towards the fighting and from where they withdrew this Saturday.
The federal government, in a new press release, denounced the preparations by the Tigrayans for a ” full-scale conflict on the front lines of Amhara and Afar, “ pushing aside the path of peace “, a ” path of peace which, as far as he is concerned, he adds, is nevertheless “ preserved ».
Verbal escalation
The two belligerents accuse each other of having relaunched the war, while the efforts of recent months to bring them to negotiate peace have led to nothing.
On Thursday, Ethiopian troops mounted on trucks paraded, flags flying, in the locality of Kobo, on the road leaving Tigray and sinking into the Amhara region. But this Saturday, the federal government announced the withdrawal of its soldiers from this small town “ in order to avoid massive losses in the exchange of fire “. He affirms that the federal army took up defensive positions outside the locality and warned: “ If the terrorist clique of the TPLF “, the party in power in Tigray, continues to use its youth in “ its strategy of human waves “, the army, he says, ” will be forced to fulfill its legal, moral and historical duty ».
Tigray regional government spokesman Getachew Reda immediately said on Twitter that “ Abiy Ahmed’s ill-fated offensive on the southern front ” did not have ” not only got off to a bad start “, more than ” Tigray forces hold firm and more “. He accuses the Ethiopian Prime Minister of taking his orders from Eritrean President Issayas Afewerki to ” a second round of genocidal campaign against Tigray “. And he concludes: Those who have told us repeatedly that Abiy Ahmed is ready for peace should think twice. »