Ethiopia accuses Sudan, Egypt of backing Tigray rebels as fighting rages

Ethiopia’s army commander has accused Sudan and Egypt of backing armed groups fighting its troops in the north of the country after heavy clashes resumed between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the federal government.

Speaking on the army’s YouTube channel on Sunday, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula said it was “fighting forces that are organised and allied to serve the interests of external forces”.

He added that these forces would not be able to achieve any gains unless they were “backed, supported and supplied by Sudan, Egypt and other external powers”.

The Sudanese military denied the allegations in a statement on Sunday, calling them “baseless”.

The military, which has been fighting a civil war in Sudan against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since 2023, also made a counterclaim, alleging that the RSF was receiving support from within Ethiopia’s territory, including training, supplies and military activity involving drones.

Fighting between the TPLF and Ethiopia’s federal government, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, resumed on Wednesday, raising fears of a return to the 2020-2022 civil war, in which an estimated 600,000 people died.

The headquarters of Tigrai TV, seen as the key outlet for the rebel authorities in the Tigrayan capital, Mekelle, was hit by a drone on Sunday.

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, said Ethiopia’s government last week said the station’s operations had been suspended indefinitely.

“The federal government hasn’t commented on this drone strike, but it comes following a significant communications disruption in the Tigray region,” Webb reported.

Communications have been limited since Friday when telecommunications providers reported major disruptions to phone and internet services in Tigray, making reporting on the conflict difficult.

“We don’t know who’s causing this communications blackout, if it’s the federal government repeating its strategies from the last civil war or if it’s TPLF who are trying to prevent electronic communications being used by the federal government to target its drone strikes,” Webb added.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said the secretary-general was “particularly troubled by reports of the use of drones as well as incidents of harm to civilians”. No exact figures on the number of casualties were confirmed.

The TPLF has seized airports and launched attacks into the neighbouring states of Afar and Amhara, saying it was engaged in a “defensive war” against the government.

A source told Al Jazeera Arabic that the Ethiopian army has seized control of the city of Alamata in southern Tigray and was advancing towards Mekhoni and Maychew, deeper into the region.

According to the AFP news agency, TPLF fighters took control of the town of Erebti in the Afar region near the border with Tigray on Sunday. The rebels were advancing towards Afdera, a town about 100km (60 miles) to the east, it said.

The TPLF, which has allied with six other armed groups around the country, appeared to be repeating a strategy from the last war of pushing towards Addis Ababa. The offensive in Afar aims to cut off supply lines from Djibouti, the source of the majority of Ethiopia’s imports, including fuel.

The alliance was announced last week and is aimed at overthrowing Abiy’s government.

The formation of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival brought together longstanding enemies who fought on opposite sides of the 2020-2022 civil war.