The Ethiopian government on Monday accused the Tigrayan forces of killing 100 youths in the town of Kombolcha, located about 380 km (235 miles) north of Addis Ababa, reported Reuters.
The Tigrayan forces led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has denied the allegation.
“We don’t have to kill the youth. There was no resistance in Kombolcha,” the TPLF spokerperson Getachew Reda told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.
As per reports, the rebellious Tigrayan forces have joined hands with an Oromo force also fighting the Ethiopian federal government.
The Tigrayan forces spokesperson confirmed that they were considering marching on the capital. He said the TPLF have linked up with the OLF/OLA to achieve its objectives in Tigray. He warned that if required they will even march to Addis Ababa.
The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) is a banned armed group that separated from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). The Oromo are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. Many political leaders from the group are currently in jail.
In related news, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday called on the citizens to join the fight against rebellious Tigray forces, after the rebel forces seized two strategic towns in the northeast of the country that control a major highway toward the capital.
Getachew Reda, the spokesperson for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), had confirmed to Reuters that the group had seized the Ethiopian town of Kombolcha and its airport in the Amhara region.
The conflict between Ethiopian government forces and Tigrayan forces started a year ago after the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy announced a military offensive to oust Tigray’s regional ruling party, TPLF.
In a Facebook post, the Ethiopian prime minister appealed the people to use any types of weapons to block the destructive TPLF, to overturn it and bury it.
