Forces from Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region have fired rockets into the city of Bahir Dar in the neighbouring Amhara region but no casualties or damage were reported, the Amhara government said, as federal forces moved towards the Tigrayan capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe illegal TPLF group launched a rocket attack around 01:40am [22:40 GMT on Thursday] in Bahir Dar,\u201d Amhara regional government\u2019s communications office said on its Facebook page on Friday, referring to the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front (TPLF).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rockets have caused no damage,\u201d the post added.<\/p>\n
The northern-based TPLF effectively governed Ethiopia for decades as the strongest force in a multi-ethnic coalition, until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power two years ago.<\/p>\n
Abiy\u2019s government says the TPLF has turned renegade and is holding power in Tigray illegally. Tensions escalated after the government accused TPLF of attacking federal troops.<\/p>\n
But the TPLF says the war is part of an unconstitutional assault on regional rights. Both sides accuse the other of atrocities and blocking humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n
Amhara, which has a long-running border dispute with Tigray, has sent regional forces in support of the federal troops.<\/p>\n
The conflict in northern Ethiopia has killed hundreds over the past two weeks, sent 33,000 refugees into Sudan, and called into question whether Abiy \u2013 Africa\u2019s youngest leader and last year\u2019s Nobel Peace Prize winner \u2013 can hold his ethnically divided nation together ahead of national elections next year.<\/p>\n
He released thousands of political prisoners, lifted bans on many political parties and put many officials from the old regime on trial for crimes like murder or corruption. The Tigrayans accused him of purging them from positions of power, accusations his government denies.<\/p>\n
There have also been reports of ethnically motivated killings.<\/p>\n
International rights group Amnesty International documented a mass killing of civilians by what it says were Tigrayan forces on November 9-10, and refugees fleeing the conflict into Sudan have said they were targeted because they were Tigrayan.<\/p>\n
Tigray forces accused the government of bombing a university in the Tigray capital of Mekelle on Thursday. There was no immediate response from the government although officials have said they are only attacking military targets.<\/p>\n
It has been impossible to verify assertions on all sides because telephone lines and internet connections to Tigray have been down since the beginning of the conflict.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia said on Thursday it was closing in on Mekelle as the rebels claimed they are fighting to defend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forces from Ethiopia\u2019s Tigray region have fired rockets into the city of Bahir Dar in the neighbouring Amhara region but no casualties or damage were reported, the Amhara government said, as federal forces moved towards the Tigrayan capital. \u201cThe illegal TPLF group launched a rocket attack around 01:40am [22:40 GMT on Thursday] in Bahir Dar,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-english-news","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/arabsiyonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/tplf-1068x710-1.jpg?fit=1068%2C710&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5kp1p-fGE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60307,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60304\/revisions\/60307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arabsiyonews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}