Tigrayan forces and Fano fighters attacked federal troops in Amhara’s North Wollo, as a Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) official told AFP on September 24 that the group was in “full-blown war.”
TPLF vice president Amanuel Assefa said Tigrayan forces were fighting alongside local armed groups in Amhara and Afar, a day after attacks into both regions began. The Ethiopian National Defense Force said it had killed 272 TPLF fighters in several parts of North Wollo; AFP could not verify the figure, and no federal or civilian casualty numbers were given.
ACLED reported fighting in Gazgibela woreda in Wag Hemra and in Gidan, Lasta and Raya Kobo woredas in North Wollo, where federal troops, the Tigray Peace Force, Amhara police and militia faced the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Tigray Defense Forces. It had earlier described joint attacks by the two groups toward Kobo and Tumuga, and clashes along the Zata, Dinqa and Sekota lines. AFP also received reports of fighting around Lalibela that closed the town’s airport.
In Afar, a single humanitarian source told AFP of heavy artillery fire around Yallo as rebels tried to take the town. Kjetil Tronvoll of Oslo New University College told AFP the Afar push was likely aimed at cutting supplies from Djibouti, which handles almost all of Ethiopia’s trade.
The Amhara Fano National Movement and the TPLF, opponents in the 2020 to 2022 war, are both members of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, which seven armed groups announced on September 20 with the aim of removing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. ACLED said continued coordination between the two would worry the federal Government.
President Taye Atske Selassie told the U.N. General Assembly that Ethiopia faced “the forces of destruction and mayhem.” The U.S. Embassy said it was “disappointed to see the leadership of the TPLF” launch a large-scale offensive.
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