DM Monitoring
GONDAR: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed replaced his army chief, the head of intelligence and the foreign minister on Sunday as the military continued a five-day old offensive in the restive Tigray region with a new round of air strikes. Abiy gave no reasons for the personnel changes, which come as he pursues a military campaign against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a powerful ethnic faction that led the ruling coalition for decades until Abiy took office in 2018.
The president of the Tigray region, Debretsion Gebremichael, who is also chairman of TPLF, told Reuters that TPLF would keep on defending itself until federal authorities agree to negotiate.
Abiy’s office announced that Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen had been appointed foreign minister, while deputy army chief Birhanu Jula was promoted to army chief of staff.
Temesgen Tiruneh, who was president of the Amhara region, was named new intelligence chief. Amhara regional state forces have been fighting alongside their federal counterparts against the TPLF.
Debretsion told Reuters that the federal government was still pounding some targets with air strikes. “Federal control is zero within Tigray,” he said.
The federal government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Debretsion’s remarks.
Ethiopia’s neighbours fear the fighting could spark a civil war in Africa’s second most populous nation and destabilise the Horn of Africa region. On Sunday, the central bank ordered the closure of 616 branches of commercial banks in Tigray, citing reports of looting.
Tigrayans dominated Ethiopian politics for decades until Abiy reorganised the ruling coalition into a single party which the TPLF refused to join. Tensions escalated after Tigray held a regional election in September, which the federal government called illegal. On Wednesday, Abiy launched military operations in Tigray in response to what he said was an attack on federal troops.
Nine million people risk displacement from the escalating conflict in Tigray, the United Nations said in a report published on Saturday, warning that the fighting was blocking food and other aid.
About 600,000 people in Tigray depend on food aid to survive, while a further million receive other forms of support, all of which are disrupted, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
