NAIROBI (Reuters) - Ethiopian and Eritrean government forces have launched an attack in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, targeting Tigrayan forces, a Tigrayan military spokesperson said, as a government statement blamed the Tigrayans for renewed fighting.
The Tigrayan military command said the northern town of Adybayo had been attacked from four directions.
“The enemy, having already relocated a massive force to Eritrea, has now begun a joint campaign with the foreign invading force of Eritrea,” it added in a statement.
Fighting was also continuing on the southern front, it said.
The statement came after its spokesperson, Getachew Reda, said on Twitter that the two forces had launched a “massive four-pronged offensive early this morning” in the Adybayo area.
The Ethiopian government said attacks by Tigrayan forces had intensified, leading to the deaths and displacement of civilians and property destruction. It also accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of diverting food aid meant for hungry Tigrayans.
The government statement did not directly address claims about an attack by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops in northwestern Tigray.
Ethiopian government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to a Reuters query on the number of civilians killed or displaced by conflict.
Military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and the prime minister’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Both sides blame each other for breaking a ceasefire.
The conflict in Ethiopia has roiled the region and destabilized Africa’s second most populous country, a diplomatic heavyweight that hosts the African Union and provides peacekeepers to several of its fragile neighbors.
Reuters was not able to independently confirm Getachew’s report or ascertain who started the fighting because Tigray has not had telephone links since government troops pulled out more than a year ago.
A humanitarian worker in the Tigrayan town of Shire told Reuters that drivers coming from the area reported cross-border shelling on Wednesday.
He said he had spoken to a witness who said heavy artillery shelling in the town of Shiraro near the Eritrean border had started at around 4:30 am on Thursday.
A militia leader in the Amhara city of Gondar with contacts on the front lines of the fighting confirmed there had been “heavy shelling from our side” aimed at Tigrayan trenches around the town of Shiraro, in the same area.
The Ethiopian military had clashed with the Tigrayan forces on Wednesday, he said, and wounded fighters from the government side were being treated in Humera. The hospital had been given orders to clear out civilian patients, he said.