The international community and other world leaders have appealed for some restraint on Thursday after fighting had resumed in northern Ethiopia between government forces and Tigray rebels thereby destroying a truce and casting a shadow over any hopes for peace in the region.
The situation on ground had been unclear a day after fresh fighting erupted on the border of Tigray, where the warring sides had openly accused each other of igniting the first major clashes in five months.
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Rebel authorities in Tigray said on Wednesday that government forces failed to breach their defensive lines, but offered little detail on the status of combat or casualties.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the truce reached between the warring parties in March had “reduced violence and saved lives”.
“We are concerned that renewed fighting puts that at risk. We call on the Ethiopian Government and TPLF to redouble efforts for peace to bring a permanent end to the conflict.”
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged both sides to pull back from “a full blown war”, saying: “Reports of renewed conflict in Northern Ethiopia cast a shadow on the prospect for peace.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres and envoys from Britain, Turkey, the African Union and the East African trade bloc IGAD made similar calls for restraint and a commitment to dialogue.
In another report, it has been revealed that some heavy fighting has erupted between some of the government forces and Tigrayan rebels in resumed conflicts in northern Ethiopia on Wednesday thereby shattering a five-month truce between the warring sides.
The renewed warfare would also be following the conflict that saw both sides repeatedly blaming each other for a lack of progress towards negotiations to end the brutal 21-month conflict in Africa’s second most populous nation.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said government forces and their allies had launched a “large scale” offensive towards southern Tigray early Wednesday after a months-long lull in fighting.
