Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Rockets hit outskirts of Eritrea capital
The 12-day conflict between Ethiopia’s government and forces in the country’s Tigray region has escalated. The Tigrayan forces fired rockets across the border into neighbouring Eritrea, after claiming Ethiopian soldiers were using an Eritrean airport to attack Tigray. Ethiopia’s prime minister appeared to deny the accusations in a tweet. But analysts say the latest attacks mark a major uptick in a conflict which has displaced thousands of civilians.
Ethiopia has been through big changes since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize last year after reaching out to make peace with neighbouring Eritrea, with whom Ethiopia had fought a bloody war two decades ago. But the widespread reforms he pushed through sidelined the Tigrayans of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front party (TPLF) who had long dominated the political scene – and in recent weeks, tensions between the party and the federal government seriously escalated. Animosity between the government in Tigray and Eritrea goes back a long way, according to the BBC’s Africa regional editor Will Ross, who says much of it stems from that border war of 20 years ago which left tens of thousands of soldiers dead.(BBC)…[+]