Ethiopia's War Widens Into Afar With Abala Under Siege
Fighting between Afar regional forces and the Tigray front continued for a fourth day along a line running 80 to 90 kilometres, with artillery audible in the hills dividing the two regions. The town of Abala, with a population above 50,000, is besieged, and aid workers fear the humanitarian position is deteriorating. Afar borders both Djibouti and Eritrea, raising the prospect that the fighting reaches regional trade.
Afar is the reason this matters beyond Ethiopia: it carries the road to the Djibouti coast, and the fear is that fighting across it reaches regional trade. The federal army said on Thursday that it had killed 272 fighters and wounded 260 in a counter-offensive in North Wollo, in Amhara, while its chief of staff speaks of meeting provocations with “wisdom and restraint” and a preference for “strategic calm” — language that sits awkwardly beside the casualty claims. Seven armed groups have now combined in an alliance committed to removing Abiy Ahmed’s government, which risks welding separate insurgencies in Amhara, Oromia and Tigray into one war. The 2022 Pretoria agreement is under severe strain. Watch the Djibouti road.