Ethiopia’s Amhara region on Sunday called on “all young people” to take up arms against forces from the neighbouring region of Tigray, who claimed to have taken over a town in Amhara for the first time since the conflict began.
The call for mass mobilisation came as a spokesperson for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that controls Tigray, said they had taken the town of Adi Arkay in Amhara.
The spokesperson, Getachew Reda, told Reuters in a text message that TPLF had taken over the town but offered no more detail.
Spokespeople for the prime minister, Ethiopian military, a government taskforce on Tigray and did not return calls seeking comment.
The spokesperson for the Amhara region said he was not authorised to comment on the matter.
War erupted between the Ethiopian military and the TPLF in November. Three weeks later, the government declared victory when it captured Tigray’s capital Mekelle, but the TPLF kept fighting. At the end of June, the TPLF seized back control of Mekelle and most of Tigray after government soldiers withdrew.
In recent days Tigrayan forces pushed into Afar, the neighbouring region to the east, where they said they planned to target troops from the Amhara region fighting alongside the federal military in the area.
Tigrayan forces have also pushed south and have said they will push west in an effort to restore their region’s pre-war boundaries. Western Tigray is currently controlled by Amhara forces, who say the land rightfully belongs to them.
Discover more from LN247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
