US concerned by ‘Tigray’s attempt to cause instability’

The US says it is concerned by what it calls ‘blatant attempt to cause regional instability’ by local forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region after they launched rocket attacks last weekend against neighbouring Eritrea.

Fighting continues between Ethiopian soldiers and Tigrayan forces amid increased worries about a growing humanitarian crisis.

The rocket attacks on Eritrean capital, Asmara, were a sign of how the internal conflict in Ethiopia could spread to the rest of the Horn of Africa.

Tigray’s ruling party, Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accuses the Eritrean government of working with Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to launch attacks against the state. Eritrea denies the accusations.

The US said it admired ‘Eritrea’s restraint’, which the State Department said had helped ‘prevent the further spreading of the conflict’.

Close to 30,000 people have crossed from Tigray into neighbouring Sudan and many are believed to have been internally displaced.

The Ethiopian army says it is advancing to Tigray’s state capital, Mekelle, and the historic city of Axum. The TPLF accuses the army of attacking civilians on airstrikes.

But these are claims that are difficult to independently verify because of a communications blackout in the northern state.

The conflict is now entering its third week and it’s hard to see when it will end.