The Ethiopian army announced that it had eliminated more than 400 members of the opposition "Tigray People's Liberation Front" in the northwestern Amhara region, at a time when the northern regions are witnessing a regional blackout in internet service, days after the Popular Front announced the formation of an alliance with six opposition groups across the country to overthrow the government.
The Ethiopian army stated in a post on Facebook, Friday, that “the illegal Tigray People’s Liberation Front group launched another raid today (Friday), following its attack on the northeastern command two days ago.”
The Ethiopian army statement added that during its counterattack, its forces were able to kill 436 members of what it described as “enemy forces” and wound 220 others, with 44 members surrendering.
The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which controls the northern Tigray region, are exchanging accusations of launching attacks, raising fears of a comprehensive conflict erupting again.
This comes at a time when areas in northern Ethiopia are witnessing, on Friday, a regional outage in Internet service, according to the “NetBlocks” website, which specializes in monitoring network disturbances.
Four people - including a diplomatic source - told Reuters that the Tigray People's Liberation Front issued orders to state-owned regional telecommunications companies to cut off telephone and Internet services in the region, which a source close to the group denied, blaming the government.
One source said earlier that the restrictions imposed by the Tigray People's Liberation Front on mobile phone communications may be part of a tactic aimed at neutralizing the advantage of government forces in using drones on the battlefield, by preventing them from accessing the mobile phone network.
The army has a large stock of imported and locally manufactured drones, and has been using them to attack targets in Tigray since last month, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a non-profit organization.
Drones provide a significant field advantage for the Ethiopian army against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which is not known to have used this type of aircraft.
The people fear a repeat of the scenario of communications disruption and supply blockade imposed by the federal government on the Tigray region during the recent civil war (2020-2022), which claimed the lives of nearly 600,000 people.
At the same time, the private media website Wazma Radio reported on Friday that security officials in Tigray arrested former regional officials on charges of providing the Ethiopian federal government with military intelligence information.
The website reported the arrest of Colonel Tewelde Embab, the former head of military intelligence in the Tigray security forces, and Isaias Tadesse, the head of political affairs for the regional forces and a former member of the central committee of the Tigray People's Liberation Front.
The website added, "There were reports that arrest warrants had been issued against three other former regional military commanders, although the sources refused to reveal their identities," noting that Lieutenant General Tadesse Weredi, the former head of the interim administration in Tigray, has been under house arrest and tight security supervision since last Wednesday.
On the other hand, Major General Gebre Adhana, former commissioner of the Tigray Regional Police and a prominent leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, announced his defection from the group and joined the federal government.
Adhana previously held senior military positions, including the head of intelligence and defense operations before the recent actions of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, and chose to defect after his strong opposition to "the organization's subversive agenda, its obsession with war, and its complicity with its historical enemies."
He also condemned its forced recruitment of underage children “to be used as cannon fodder, which has exacerbated the suffering of the people of Tigray.”
Ethiopian federal forces clashed with Tigray rebels on Thursday evening in an attempt to repel an attack on the city of Abala in the Afar region, according to what a humanitarian source told Agence France-Presse on Friday, days after battles resumed in the north of the country.
The northern Wollo region in the Amhara region also witnessed violent battles on Thursday, including the vicinity of sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in the city of Lalibela, which includes the famous churches of Ethiopia carved into the rock.
The army announced, on Wednesday, that it had eliminated 272 fighters from the Front, after an attack launched by the group on the command headquarters, while the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” announced launching attacks on the Amhara and Afar regions on Wednesday, confirming that it was responding to attacks launched by federal forces.
Rebels of the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia seized local airports and launched attacks on neighboring states this week, confirming that they are once again waging an "all-out war" against the federal government.
"We are now in a state of all-out war," Amanuel Asefa, deputy head of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, told AFP, adding that "there are battles everywhere."
He confirmed the continuation of battles in the Amhara and Afar regions, where the Front's militants are fighting alongside other local groups.
Residents of the city of Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, told the BBC that local forces had seized control of the city's airport from the national police early on Wednesday.
This followed reports of drone attacks in Tigray over the past few days.
On Tuesday, an air strike in the southern town of Alamata in Tigray killed at least 14 people and injured 22 others, according to regional authorities.
The town's mayor, Mogos Chevrois, told the BBC that more than five drones and one fighter plane carried out more than 21 raids that began around 03:30 in the morning.
He said: "This caused a great psychological shock in our city, and our residents lived in a state of panic," stressing that all the dead and injured were civilians, accusing the federal forces of targeting two secondary schools.
It was likely that the bombing targeted the two schools on suspicion of being used by Tigray forces, but he explained that the two schools - which were used as federal military bases during the civil war - were empty, as the school year had not yet begun.
The BBC has not independently verified these allegations, nor has the government commented on the alleged raids.
On Wednesday, Tigray authorities accused Addis Ababa of launching a "full invasion" of the region, and urged residents to support regional forces and maintain unity.
Analysts believe that the Tigray rebels appear to be repeating their strategy in the previous war, as they advance south through the Amhara region towards the capital, Addis Ababa, while the aim of the attack in the Afar region may be to cut off supply lines coming from Djibouti, through which the vast majority of Ethiopia’s international trade shipments, including fuel, pass.
Seven groups opposed to the federal government in different regions of the country, including the Tigray People's Liberation Front, the Fano militia in Amhara, and the Oromo Liberation Army, have announced an alliance aimed at overthrowing the ruling authority in Addis Ababa.
Human rights organizations have accused the Tigray People's Liberation Front of launching forced recruitment campaigns during the current year in preparation for the resumption of fighting, while about a million are still displaced in the region.
The return of fighting comes at a critical time for the United States, which this month lifted sanctions imposed on Ethiopia and Eritrea over atrocities committed during the recent civil war, citing that “the national emergency has ended.”
