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Two different groups fighting Ethiopia’s central government said they had seized control of towns Sunday as the prime minister appealed for citizens to take up arms, The spreading conflict threatens to further destabilize Africa’s second-most-populous nation, once considered a stable Western ally in a volatile region…
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged citizens to join the fight against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or the TPLF, the party in control of the rebellious northern region of Tigray, after Tigrayan forces said they took another town on a highway linking the capital of the landlocked nation to the port of Djibouti.
“Our people should march…with any weapon and resources they have to defend, repulse and bury the terrorist TPLF,” Abiy said in a Facebook post Sunday night.
TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda said Tigrayan forces have seized the town of Kombolcha and its airport in the Amhara region. He spoke to Reuters by phone from an unknown location.
On Sunday night, insurgents from Oromiya, Ethiopia’s most populous region, said they had also seized the town of Kemise, 53 kilometers south of Kombolcha on the same highway to the capital Addis Ababa.
