Ethiopia: Amhara region boss makes appeal against Tigray rebels

President of Ethiopia's Amhara region Agegnehu Teshager called on all armed residents for battle against Tigray rebels. State media said that he called it "survival campaign". Amhara region borders Tigray to the South. The regions are embroiled in a decades long dispute that has become central to eight-month-old war in Tigray.

Sunday's statement from Amhara regional president Agegnehu Teshager echoes a call made Friday by the president of Ethiopia's Afar region just east of Tigray.

Together the two statements highlight the potential for the Tigray war, which Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared all but over in late November, to draw in the rest of the country.

"Starting from tomorrow (Monday), I call on all people of age who are armed either at governmental or private level to mobilise for a survival campaign," Agegnehu said.

Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, sent troops into Tigray last November to oust the region's ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a move he said was in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.

Fighting dragged on for months before the war took a stunning turn in late June, with pro-TPLF fighters reclaiming the Tigray capital Mekele and Abiy declaring a unilateral ceasefire.

Yet clashes have continued and officials from six regions and the city of Dire Dawa have since said they would send troops to back government forces. 

The war has already killed thousands and, according to the United Nations, pushed hundreds of thousands into famine.

(Wion web team)