Ethiopia approached civil war Wednesday as its Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister ordered the military to confront the country's well-armed Tigray regional government, accusing it of a deadly attack on a military base and declaring "the last red line has been crossed" after months of alleged provocations.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's move against the Tigray People's Liberation Front, in one of Africa's most populous and powerful countries, sent a shock wave through the long-turbulent Horn of Africa. Ethiopia's neighbors include Somalia and Sudan, and the prospect of spreading instability sent a chill down observers' spines.
Tigray region, Ethiopia
Signaling the gravity of the threat, the United States in the midst of its election drama issued a statement urging "an immediate de-escalation." The United Nations expressed "alarm" and made a similar plea.
"We have to guard against 'just another tribal African war,' " former U.S. diplomat Payton Knopf told The Associated Press. "This is much more akin to what an interstate war would look like," with large and highly trained ground forces, mechanized units and heavy artillery.
Internet and phone lines were cut in Tigray, challenging efforts to verify the Ethiopian government's account of events. A statement on Tigray TV accused the federal government of deploying troops to "cow the people of Tigray into submission by force" and said airspace over the region was closed.
The prime minister announced "several martyrs" in the overnight attack in Mekele, the northern Tigray region's capital, and Dansha town. The region is Ethiopia's most sensitive, neighboring Eritrea, which fought a long border war before the two countries made peace in 2018.
Counterattack
Abiy, in a national address late Wednesday, said the attack was aimed at making Ethiopia vulnerable to outside enemies, without naming names. The army late Wednesday said it had launched a counterattack and asserted "massive" damage, and Abiy said the military would conduct further operations in the coming days.
Ethiopia declared a six-month state of emergency in Tigray on Wednesday, saying "illegal and violent activities" were threatening the country's sovereignty. A Tigray TV report that the Ethiopian military's northern command had defected to the Tigray government was "not true," the prime minister's office told the AP.
FILE - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, center, arrives for an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 9, 2020. Ahmed on Nov. 4, 2020 ordered the military to confront the Tigray regional government after he said it attacked a base.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopia's military and governing coalition before Abiy took office in 2018 and announced sweeping political reforms that won him the Nobel last year. Those reforms, however, opened space for ethnic and other grievances. The TPLF, feeling marginalized by shifts in power, left the coalition last year.
Tigray officials have objected to the postponement of Ethiopia's national election because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which extends Abiy's stay in office. In September, the region held an election that defied the federal government and increased tensions over a region of some 5 million people that, despite its small share of Ethiopia's population of 110 million, has had outsize influence.
Last month, the federal government further angered the TPLF by moving to divert funding for Tigray to local administrations instead of the regional government.
On Monday, Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael warned that a bloody conflict could erupt, accusing Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders of making "all necessary preparations to start war" against the region. There was no immediate Eritrea comment.
Ethiopia was already stressed by a dispute with Egypt over a massive Ethiopian dam project that has drawn rare attention from President Donald Trump to Africa, and by a multilayer crisis with the COVID-19 pandemic and deadly ethnic violence.
'Disastrous' conflict feared
"This war is the worst possible outcome of the tensions that have been brewing," said William Davison, the International Crisis Group's senior analyst for Ethiopia. "Given Tigray's relatively strong security position, the conflict may well be protracted and disastrous."
Abiy's statement accused the TPLF of arming and organizing irregular militias in recent weeks. "TPLF has chosen to wage war," his office said. "The last red line has been crossed with this morning's attacks and the federal government is therefore forced into a military confrontation" to save the country.
The TPLF has said it's not interested in negotiating with the federal government. "What we need now is a national dialogue," a senior TPLF official, Getachew Reda, told the AP on Sunday.
Observers have worried for months about the growing tensions and their implications for the Horn of Africa, where Abiy has cast himself as a peacemaker.
A report last month by the U.S. Institute of Peace said the fragmentation of Ethiopia "would be the largest state collapse in modern history, likely leading to mass interethnic and interreligious conflict ... and a humanitarian and security crisis at the crossroads of Africa and the Middle East on a scale that would overshadow the existing conflicts in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen."
The international community needs to rally around the idea of national dialogue in Ethiopia, the International Crisis Group wrote last week. "The alternative, given the country's multiple and bitter divides, is a potential march to war that would be catastrophic," it said.