Forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region said they have taken control of a key city on the route to Addis Ababa, while the Ethiopian government denied it and the US urged the Tigray fighters to halt their advances as the year-long war intensifies.
Tigray forces spokesman Getachew Reda on Saturday told reporters that the fighters took the strategic city of Dessie in the afternoon.
The fighers also had “commanding positions” on the outskirts of the nearby city of Kombolcha and had its airport in their sights, he said.
Photo: AP
Government spokesman Legesse Tulu rejected that as “fabricated propaganda,” saying that Dessie and its surroundings were under military control.
Telephone calls to residents of Dessie did not go through, complicating efforts to verify both sides’ claims.
Taking control of the crossroads city of Dessie and Kombolcha would put the Tigray forces in position to move south along a major highway toward the capital.
“It’s a matter of days” before the fighters would be able to physically link up with another armed group, the Oromo Liberation Army, with which it struck an alliance earlier this year, Getachew said.
The Tigray forces say they are pressuring the government to lift a months-long blockade on their region of about 6 million people.
Thousands of people have been killed since the war began in November last year after a political falling-out between the Tigray forces, who long dominated the national government, and the administration of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
The Tigray fighters have taken the war into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, moving south through Amhara toward the capital, since recapturing much of their region in June.
“We don’t want to be in charge. We don’t want Abiy to take an entire nation down with him, either,” Getachew said.
The prime minister has urged all capable citizens to war.
The US called on the Tigray forces to halt their advances in and around Dessie and Kombolcha, as well as withdraw from Amhara and Afar, and not to use artillery against cities.
The US urged both sides to begin ceasefire negotiations, saying that “there is no military solution to this conflict,” which has cost “countless lives.”
It also said it continued to be “alarmed by reports of the deliberate denial of humanitarian assistance” in Tigray, where the UN has reported a “de facto humanitarian blockade.”
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