Ethiopia’s army has retaken the town of Chifra in Afar region, the state-run broadcaster said on Sunday, its first major seizure from rebellious Tigrayan forces since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared on the frontlines two days ago.
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s army has retaken the town of Chifra in Afar region, the state-run broadcaster said on Sunday, its first major seizure from rebellious Tigrayan forces since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared on the frontlines two days ago.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) captured Chifra, on the border between the northern Afar and Amhara regions, after fighting intensified last month between Ethiopian troops and forces loyal to the TPLF.
Ethiopian Defense Forces and Afar Special Forces have controlled Chifra,” the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation said on its Twitter account.
It did not give further details. Reuters was not able to independently verify the report. Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu and TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Chifra is west of the town of Mille, which Tigrayan forces have been trying to capture for weeks, because it lies along the highway linking landlocked Ethiopia to Djibouti, the Horn of Africa’s main port.
State-affiliated Fana Broadcasting reported on Friday that Abiy was on the frontline with the army fighting the Tigrayan forces in Afar.
“The morale of the army is very exciting,” he said in the remarks broadcast on Friday, promising to capture Chifra town “today”.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions displaced by fighting since war erupted in Tigray last November.
Tigrayan forces were initially beaten back, but recaptured most of the region in July and pushed into neighbouring Amhara and Afar, displacing hundreds of thousands more people.
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The only way I’m gonna believe this success story by the officials is if it is verified and certified by independent sources. If not, it is no dice from me. I’m in no way belittling or discounting the presence of that young and visionary PM at the battlefront but I was lied to by Jula, Bacha and the rest of the top brass not once but more than twice. And I believed their stories just to find out it was all heap of bovine scatology. I ain’t gonna let myself be had again. Never!! What I do after reading ‘success’ stories from the ‘battle fronts’ has been asking questions like ‘where are my cities Dessie, Weldiya, Kobo, Kombolcha, Maichaw, Adwa, Axum, Adigrat, Mekele and the towns on the main road leading to Kemise?’. Show me the national flag waving in all these cities and was verified by independent media then you will make a believer out of me. Otherwise I ain’t gonna flinch about that. No sir!!!