Ethiopian PM orders military response to ‘attack’ in restive Tigray state

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed 

Credit: REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri/File Photo

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has ordered a military response to a deadly attack by the ruling party of the restive Tigray region on a camp housing federal troops, in an escalation of a long-running dispute.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) "has attacked a military camp" in the region and "tried to loot" military assets, Mr Abiy said in a post on Facebook and Twitter.

The attack resulted in "many martyrs, injuries and property damage", Mr Abiy said later in a five-minute address on state television, without providing details.

"Our defence forces… have been ordered to carry out their mission to save the country. The final point of the red line has been crossed. Force is being used as the last measure to save the people and the country," said the Facebook and Twitter post.

It was not immediately clear what form the federal military response might take, though analysts and diplomats have been warning for weeks that the standoff between the federal government and the TPLF could spill over into violence.

Internet monitoring group Netblocks reported that internet appeared to have been cut in Tigray as of one am (2200 GMT Tuesday).

Mr Abiy said on state TV that "traitorous forces" had turned on the military in the regional capital, Mekele, and the town of Dansha in western Tigray.

The assault on Dansha was "repelled" by security forces from Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south, he added.

A separate statement from Mr Abiy’s office accused the TPLF of dressing its soldiers in uniforms resembling those of the army of neighbouring Eritrea to "implicate the Eritrean government in false claims of aggression against the people of Tigray."

Tigray’s government said on regional state media that leadership and rank-and-file soldiers from the military’s Northern Command, based in Mekele, "have decided to stand with the Tigray people and the regional government".

The statement also said Tigray had closed its airspace.

It was not possible to immediately corroborate the statements from the two sides.