Tigray forces say Ethiopia’s government has launched its threatened major military offensive against them in an attempt to end a nearly year-old war.
A statement from the Tigray external affairs office alleged hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian “regular and irregular fighters” launched a coordinated assault on several fronts. It blamed Ethiopian forces and those from the country’s Amhara region, where much of the recent fighting has occurred after Tigray forces retook much of their own region in June.
The Tigray statement, which also alleged airstrikes, drone strikes and bombardments by heavy artillery, could not immediately be confirmed amid communications cuts in areas of fighting.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Billene Seyoum the spokeswoman for prime minister Abiy Ahmed, said only that “the government of Ethiopia will continue to counter the [Tigray forces’] destruction, violence and killings in the Amhara region and elsewhere”.