Rocket attacks by Tigray may escalate crisis in Ethiopia
▶ Barrages hit airports in Amhara as the region’s leadership says it will not hesitate to strike targets in Eritrea
Leaders of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region yesterday claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on two airports in a nearby region and threatened to strike neighbouring Eritrea, raising fears that the conflict could escalate.
The attacks – and threats of more to come – fuelled concern that a conflict Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said would be quick and contained could destabilise the entire Horn of Africa.
Mr Abiy, the winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, announced last week he had ordered military operations in Tigray, saying the move came in response to attacks on federal military camps by the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.
Hundreds of people were reported to have been killed in the conflict, some in a massacre documented by Amnesty International.
Thousands have fled fighting and air strikes in Tigray, whose leaders Mr Abiy accuses of trying to destabilise Ethiopia.
As of Friday evening, at least 21,000 Ethiopians had fled across the border into Sudan, according to Sudan’s refugee agency.
The strikes on airports occurred on Friday night in two cities of the neighbouring Amhara region, Bahir Dar and Gondar. Both are used for civilian and military travel.
The federal government acknowledged they had been damaged, and a doctor in Gondar said two soldiers were killed and up to 15 people were injured.
“Yesterday evening we inflicted heavy damage on the military components of the Gondar and Bahir Dar airports,” Getachew Reda, a senior member of the TPLF, said yesterday.
He repeated claims by the TPLF that Eritrean soldiers were involved in the fighting, which Ethiopia denied.
And he said the TPLF would not hesitate to strike locations inside Eritrea – Ethiopia’s traditional foe – including its capital, Asmara.
“Whether they lift [go] from Asmara or Bahir Dar to attack Tigray … will commit retaliatory measures. We will undertake missile attacks on selected targets in addition to the airports,” he said.
“We will conduct missile attacks to foil military movements in Massawa and Asmara.”
Mr Abiy on Friday declared the TPLF was in the “throes of death”, but the party has vowed to fight on. A communications blackout in the region has hindered assessment of competing claims about how the fighting is going.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before Mr Abiy took office in 2018 on the back of several years of anti-government protests. Since then, the TPLF has complained of being a scapegoat for the country’s woes.
The feud grew more bitter after Tigray went ahead with its own elections in September, defying a nationwide ban on all polls imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, and tried to brand Mr Abiy an illegitimate ruler.