Washington: The United States of America is concerned about the reports that rebellious forces of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had captured two Ethiopian towns, and calls on the conflict parties for a truce, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday.
The TPLF said on Sunday that its fighters captured Dessie and Kombolcha in the north of the country.
“Continued fighting prolongs the dire humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia. All parties must stop military operations and begin ceasefire negotiations without preconditions,” Blinken said on Twitter.
The war broke out in November 2020 between federal troops and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly 30 years. The country’s authorities accused TPLF of attacking a military base and launched an operation in Tigray with the support of neighbouring Eritrea.
In the spring of 2021, the Ethiopian authorities announced that Eritrea was withdrawing troops from Tigray. In June, rebels in Tigray captured the regional capital, the city of Mekelle, and the Ethiopian government declared an unconditional ceasefire. Later the rebels said that they had launched a new offensive and put a significant part of southern Tigray under control.
