Tigray news: Two judges allegedly killed in TDF attack on Afar

Tigray News: Two judges have been allegedly killed in ongoing fighting between Tigray Defence Force (TDF) & Afar militias in the Afar region of Ethiopia.

Tigray Defence Force (TDF) last month announced to launch a military operation in the neighboring Afar region. Since then heavy clashes have been going on in Afar-Tigray border areas.

Tigray forces are conducting operations in Abala, Megale, Erebti, Berhale, and Konneba woredas of the neighboring region. More than 300,000 civilians have been displaced from the five districts so far.

Today Afar Regional Court officials said that two judicial officers had been killed in TDF’s attacks. The officials further claimed that several court buildings were heavily damaged due to ongoing artillery strikes by Tigray forces.

Details have not been provided by the Afar Regional Court officials about the identity of the two judges killed. Tigray denies attacking civilians in Afar. In a statement last month, the Tigray government said that the objective of the military operation was to push Afar forces allegedly backed by the Eritrean military away from the Tigray-Afar border. But Afar news sources say Tigray forces eye Afar’s mineral resources. Read more

In November 2020, Ethiopian federal forces, supported by the Eritrean army and regional forces, launched a military offensive on the Tigray region. At the end of June 2021, the Ethiopian and Eritrean militaries withdrew from Tigray.

Following this withdrawal, Tigray forces started military operations in the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. At one point, TDF was threatening to reach the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to remove Prime Minister Abiy’s government.

With the use of Turkish, Emirati, and Iranian drones by Ethiopian government forces in November last year, the battlefield balance tilted in favor of the federal government. After suffering military setbacks, Tigray forces retreated from the Afar and Amhara regions in December last year.

But at the start of this year, Tigray forces again announced to start a military operation in Afar accusing Afar forces, allegedly backed by the Eritrean army, of repeated border incursions. Since then clashes between TDF and Afar regional forces have been going on in border areas.