ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian federal and Tigrayan troops have massed along the border of the country’s northern Tigray region, a Western diplomatic source told AFP on Tuesday, raising fears of renewed war.
The Tigray civil war of 2020-2022 pitted federal troops — backed by local militias and the Eritrean army — against rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and killed at least 600,000 people according to estimates from the African Union.
A peace deal was never fully implemented and there was renewed fighting in January, prompting the suspension of flights to and from Tigray for several days.
“The ENDF (the federal army) is encircling Tigray,” a Western diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that Tigrayan forces “are also deploying toward their borders.”
“Such large numbers of troops positioning themselves face to face is not a good sign,” he said.
A local source in Tigray, also speaking on condition of anonymity, described it as “a massive mobilization of federal forces and Tigrayan forces.”
“If the international community does not exert pressure on the parties to the conflict to resolve their dispute through dialogue, the risk of war increases,” the Tigrayan source added.
Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have deteriorated since they fought together against Tigrayan rebels.
The Ethiopian government now accuses Eritrea of supplying the rebels with weapons, which the Eritrean government has denied.
Last week, Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the parties to the conflict in Tigray to take urgent de-escalation measures “before it is too late.”
Eritrea gained independence in 1993 after decades of armed struggle against Ethiopia.
The two Horn of Africa countries later fought a 1998-2000 border war in which tens of thousands died.