World News | Ethiopia to Replace Leadership of Tigray Region Amid Clashes
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership in the country's defiant northern Tigray region, where clashes between regional forces and those of the federal government have led to fears that the major African power could slide into civil war.
Nairobi (Kenya), Nov 7 (AP) Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership in the country's defiant northern Tigray region, where clashes between regional forces and those of the federal government have led to fears that the major African power could slide into civil war.
Tigray's leader told the African Union that the federal government was planning a “full-fledged military offensive.”
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Neither side appeared ready for the dialogue that experts say is needed to avert disaster.
The upper house of parliament, the House of Federation, voted to set up an interim administration, giving Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the power to carry out measures against a Tigray leadership his government regards as illegal.
Those include appointing officials and facilitating elections.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister asserted that “criminal elements cannot escape the rule of law under the guise of seeking reconciliation and a call for dialogue.”
Experts and diplomats are watching in dismay as two heavily armed forces clash in one of the world's most strategic yet vulnerable regions, the Horn of Africa.
Observers warn that a civil war in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country with 110 million people, could suck in or destabilize neighbours such as Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia.
A statement posted Saturday on the Facebook page of the Tigray government, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, said it will win the “justified” war, adding that “a fighter will not negotiate with its enemies.”
“Tigray's people are now armed with modern weaponry that could reach the seat of the infidels,” it said.
In a letter South Africa's president, who is the African Union's chairperson, Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael alleged that Ethiopia's federal government and neighboring Eritrea have mobilized their forces near the Tigray border “with the intention of launching a full-fledged military offensive.”
The letter dated Friday, seen by The Associated Press, called Abiy's behaviour “unconstitutional, dictatorial and treasonous.”
It said the African Union was well-placed to bring parties to dialogue to “avert an all-out civil war.” The conflict is playing out between former allies in Ethiopia's ruling coalition who now regard each other as illegal.
The TPLF long dominated the country's military and government before Abiy took office in 2018 and introduced sweeping political reforms that won him the Nobel. The changes left the TPLF feeling marginalized, and it broke away last year when Abiy sought to turn the coalition into a single Prosperity Party.
Tensions spiked when the Tigray region, objecting to the delay of the national election until next year and Abiy's extended stay in office, held a local election in September that the federal government called illegal. (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)