NAIROBI, Kenya: The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on Saturday welcomed calls for “restraint and dialogue,” days after fresh clashes erupted between local and federal forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
TPLF, a leading opposition party, once ran the whole of Ethiopia until it was displaced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and remains banned from engaging in political activities.
Hostilities flared in recent days in Tsemlet, western Tigray — an area claimed by forces from the neighboring Amhara region — raising fears of a renewed conflict between local fighters and federal troops.
The fighting has drawn concerns from the African Union, which called on “all parties to exercise maximum restraint.”
In a letter to the AU, the TPLF said it endorsed “the call for restraint and dialogue,” adding that it was ready “to engage constructively in any dialogue initiative facilitated by the African Union.”
This comes after two drone attacks in central Tigray on Saturday morning targeted trucks and killed a driver, according to Dimtsi Woyane television — a media outlet close to the Tigrayan authorities.
The fresh clashes come barely three years after the volatile region emerged from a brutal war between Ethiopian forces and TPLF that the AU says killed at least 600,000 people.
Flights to Tigray have been suspended since Thursday following the recent clashes.
Ethiopia’s federal army has yet to respond to AFP requests for comment on the situation in the region.
A statement from the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s office said he was “closely following” developments in the region.
“He is deeply concerned about the potential impact on civilians and the risk of a return to a wider conflict in a region still working to rebuild and recover,” the statement added.
Guterres called on “all parties to exercise restraint,” said the statement.
The European Union also warned on Saturday that any renewed conflict would have “serious consequences for civilians and regional stability.”
Tension has been brewing in northern Ethiopia for several months as Amhara and Eritrean forces remain present in violation of the peace deal.
Last year, the head of Tigray’s interim administration established by Addis Ababa was forced to flee Mekele, the regional capital, amid growing divisions within the TPLF.
Addis Ababa accuses the group of forging ties with neighboring Eritrea and “actively preparing to wage war against Ethiopia.”
Tigray party calls for ‘restraint and dialogue’ in restive Ethiopian region
https://arab.news/pp8p7
Tigray party calls for ‘restraint and dialogue’ in restive Ethiopian region
- Hostilities flared in recent days in Tsemlet, western Tigray
- Fighting has drawn concerns from the African Union
Italian police fire tear gas as protesters clash near Winter Olympics hockey venue
- Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue
MILAN: Italian police fired tear gas and a water cannon at dozens of protesters who threw firecrackers and tried to access a highway near a Winter Olympics venue on Saturday.
The brief confrontation came at the end of a peaceful march by thousands against the environmental impact of the Games and the presence of US agents in Italy.
Police held off the violent demonstrators, who appeared to be trying to reach the Santagiulia Olympic ice hockey rink, after the skirmish. By then, the larger peaceful protest, including families with small children and students, had dispersed.
Earlier, a group of masked protesters had set off smoke bombs and firecrackers on a bridge overlooking a construction site about 800 meters (a half-mile) from the Olympic Village that’s housing around 1,500 athletes.
Police vans behind a temporary metal fence secured the road to the athletes’ village, but the protest veered away, continuing on a trajectory toward the Santagiulia venue. A heavy police presence guarded the entire route.
There was no indication that the protest and resulting road closure interfered with athletes’ transfers to their events, all on the outskirts of Milan.
The demonstration coincided with US Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Milan as head of the American delegation that attended the opening ceremony on Friday.
He and his family visited Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” closer to the city center, far from the protest, which also was against the deployment of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to provide security to the US delegation.
US Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the US is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.
At the larger, peaceful demonstration, which police said numbered 10,000, people carried cardboard cutouts to represent trees felled to build the new bobsled run in Cortina. A group of dancers performed to beating drums. Music blasted from a truck leading the march, one a profanity-laced anti-ICE anthem.
“Let’s take back the cities and free the mountains,” read a banner by a group calling itself the Unsustainable Olympic Committee. Another group called the Association of Proletariat Excursionists organized the cutout trees.
“They bypassed the laws that usually are needed for major infrastructure project, citing urgency for the Games,” said protester Guido Maffioli, who expressed concern that the private entity organizing the Games would eventually pass on debt to Italian taxpayers.
Homemade signs read “Get out of the Games: Genocide States, Fascist Police and Polluting Sponsors,” the final one a reference to fossil fuel companies that are sponsors of the Games. One woman carried an artificial tree on her back decorated with the sign: “Infernal Olympics.”
The demonstration followed another last week when hundreds protested the deployment of ICE agents.
Like last week, demonstrators Saturday said they were opposed to ICE agents’ presence, despite official statements that a small number of agents from an investigative arm would be present in US diplomatic territory, and not operational on the streets.
