WASHINGTON – Armed groups fighting Ethiopia’s central government are swelling in numbers as they advance on the capital Addis Ababa, posing the biggest threat to embattled Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s rule since a bloody year-long conflict began in the country’s northern Tigray region a year ago, the CNN reported.
A spokesman for the Ethiopian Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) said that joint rebel fighters were still “weeks to months” away from taking the capital.
They are about 160 kilometers (99 miles) from Addis Ababa, in a town called Gerba Guracha, Odaa Tarbii said.
The question of entering the capital city is “purely based on what happens if it comes to negotiations,” with the federal government, added Odaa, saying that the group hopes to avoid a direct military conflict in the densely populated city.
Abiy has urged citizens to take up arms and fight the Tigrayan forces. “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. The inflammatory post was later taken down by Facebook for inciting violence.
The new bloc, which calls itself the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces, said in a signing event in Washington, DC, that it no longer recognized Abiy’s government as legitimate and would seek to establish transitional arrangements, striving toward a democratic future.
The alliance includes fighters loyal to Tigray’s former ruling party that once dominated the country, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), known as the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF), who have been battling Ethiopia’s military since Abiy ordered an offensive in the region last year.
Twelve months on, the fighting has left thousands dead, displaced more than 2 million people from their homes, fueled famine and given rise to a wave of atrocities. Now, with combined rebel forces edging closer to Addis Ababa and Ethiopian authorities announcing a nationwide state of emergency, fears are growing that the conflict could spiral into all-out war.
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