World·Africa
Fighting intensifies in Ethiopia’s Tigray as seven armed groups align against Abiy
Intensified fighting between Ethiopia’s federal army and Tigrayan forces has raised fears the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement could collapse, Al Jazeera reported Saturday, days after seven armed groups announced the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival seeking to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The alliance’s largest members include the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army; fighting has intensified in southern Tigray and spread into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, with Tigrayan forces taking control of airports at Mekelle, Axum and Shire — a step the African Union said is inconsistent with Pretoria. Each side blames the other for starting the latest clashes; the AU called for an immediate halt and asked former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to engage the parties, while IGAD urged neighbors not to widen the crisis.
- Al JazeeraIs Ethiopia on the verge of another civil war as fighting erupts in Tigray?