The Ethiopian government has accused Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels of inflicting a massacre in the town of Kombolcha, which TPLF claims to have captured. According to the government, a hundred young people from the northern place would have been summarily executed, international news agencies reported Monday. A TPLF spokesperson denies the allegations. He states that there was no resistance in Kombolcha, a city on an important highway towards the capital Addis Ababa.
It is not possible to verify the claims of both parties because communication possibilities are largely closed. In response to the violence in Kombolcha, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday called on all civilians to mobilize to halt the advance of the TPLF rebels and “bury” them. news site Addis Standard. A curfew was also imposed on Sunday in the state of Amhara, which is also home to other cities that the rebels claim to have taken. Ethnic Tigres were also detained in large numbers.
The prime minister’s appeal is another escalation in the conflict that began in November last year. Then the army occupied the capital of Tigray, Mekelle, out of discontent with the increasingly independent course of the TPLF, which Tigray controlled. According to the Ethiopian government, this was in response to attacks by TPLF troops on army camps. Last June, the TPLF rebels recaptured Mekelle. Since then, they have taken the initiative in the struggle that continues to tear the East African country apart.
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