Ethiopian “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” leader, Debretsion Gebremichael (Debretsion Gebremichael) said on the 15th that a rocket attacked Eritrea and expressed his intention to retaliate for Eritrea’s previous “attacks.”
According to Al Jazeera’s report on the 15th, Gebrau Michael said on the same day that in order to “retaliate”, Eritrea supported the Ethiopian government forces in fighting the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front”. A rocket was launched from Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. He said: “(Will not accept) those who attacked Tigray State just return home like this, and we will launch an attack on their airport.”
According to the report, both Eritrea and Ethiopia have denied this statement, and Eritrea has previously denied allegations of helping the Ethiopian federal government and fighting across the border. Although it is currently impossible to confirm whether the rocket fired into Eritrea caused casualties, the attack marked an escalation of conflict in the region.
The “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” is the core political party of the former Ethiopian ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, and it actually controlled the Ethiopian government. In December 2019, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abi officially established the new ruling party, the Ethiopian Prosperity Party, excluding the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front”.
According to previous reports, the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” attacked the National Defense Forces base in Tigray State in the early morning of the 4th of this month and attempted to snatch the National Defense Forces artillery and other military equipment. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy gave a televised speech on the evening of the 6th, saying that his country’s army had carried out air strikes in the northern Tigray state.
Matt Bryden, a researcher at the Sahan Research and Development Organization, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the conflict “is becoming international.” He said, “As the conflict escalates, considering the size of the armed forces involved on both sides seems to be evenly matched, more and more neighboring countries and regional partners of Ethiopia may be involved.
