Ethiopia :Armed groups join forces in Ethiopia in biggest threat yet to embattled Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed
(Africa News24.digital) 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.
Nine groups opposing the government – a broad coalition of armed groups and political actors representing different regional and ethnic interests – formed a new alliance on Friday “in response to the scores of crises facing the country” and to fight against the “genocidal regime of Ethiopia , “according to a statement issued by organizers.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.
A joint investigation into the Tigray conflict by the UN Human Rights Office and Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission released Wednesday blamed all parties to the conflict for carrying out possible war crimes.The US State Department has established an Ethiopia task force, suggesting their mounting worries about the situation in the country.Jalina Porter, a US State Department spokesperson, said they were aware of the alliance and were “gravely concerned” about the the growing risk to the “unity and the integrity of the Ethiopian state.”She added that the Horn of Africa’s Special Envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, who traveled to Ethiopia this week, was “continuing to press all parties to de-escalate the conflict and negotiate a ceasefire.”
