Ethiopia army and Tigray forces clash, TPLF says

A senior Tigray People's Liberation Front official said Ethiopian federal forces and Tigrayan forces clashed on Saturday in Shererina, in northern Ethiopia near the Sudan border.

Amanuel Assefa told AFP the federal government launched a morning attack against Tigrayan forces and that fighting was still going on. He said heavy artillery was being used.

The Ethiopian army's spokesperson did not respond to AFP's request for comment. The TPLF said in a statement that the federal army had launched a wide-ranging infantry offensive.

The fighting was reported in western Tigray, a disputed area administered by nationalists from neighbouring Amhara regional state. Federal and Tigrayan forces have been massed along the Tigray border for months, with each side accusing the other of seeking to trigger a new conflict.

Kjetil Tronvoll, a regional specialist at Oslo New University College, described the reported fighting as the most serious confrontation in northern Ethiopia for some time. He told AFP it could either be the start of a wider military campaign or a show of force intended to deter further escalation.

Tigray emerged from a 2020-2022 war between the TPLF and Ethiopian forces backed by local militias and the Eritrean army. An African Union estimate said that conflict claimed at least 600,000 lives.