Ethiopia PM claims military success against rebels in north

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says the military has suppressed rebels in the northernmost region of Tigray.

“The army not only repulsed the attacks but has managed to control important and key locations,” Ahmed said in a televised address on Wednesday evening.

There were no confirmed reports about casualties or whether the fighting was going on. But Ahmed said the government would “conduct more operations in the coming days.”

The army also said it had inflicted “massive” damage on the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

On Sunday, an attack on civilians killed at least 54 people from the ethnic Amhara group in Ethiopia’s restive Oromia.

Ahmed blamed the TPLF for the attack. His office said in a statement that early on Wednesday, the TPLF had also attempted to steal artillery and other equipment from federal forces stationed in the region.

He then ordered a military response.

The government also declared a state of emergency in the region.

Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for resolving a border conflict with neighboring Eritrea.

In his Wednesday statement, he alleged that the TPLF was threatening that truce.

The rebels have been “manufacturing military outfits resembling that of the Eritrean National Defense Forces, to implicate the Eritrean government in false claims of aggression against the people of Tigray,” he said.

SS