(MENAFN) Authorities in Ethiopia’s Afar region accused combatants from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on Wednesday of entering the area and capturing six villages, marking one of the most serious confrontations since the conclusion of the northern Ethiopia conflict.

The Afar regional administration reported that TPLF troops fired heavy weaponry in the Tonsa zone of Megale district, targeting local pastoralist populations.

Officials warned that the region would “defend itself from external attack” if these assaults persisted.

The TPLF, which held sway over Ethiopia’s political landscape for almost thirty years before being removed from office in 2018, engaged in a brutal war against federal forces from 2020 to 2022.

The conflict concluded with the Pretoria Agreement, which reestablished a fragile peace.

Although the accord brought a measure of stability, it left lingering divisions and occasional flare-ups throughout northern Ethiopia.

Since the war, the party has fractured, with some prominent figures establishing new political entities.

This includes Getachew Reda, a former TPLF spokesperson who briefly served as Tigray’s interim administrator following the peace agreement and now acts as Minister Advisor for East African Affairs in the federal government.

The TPLF has not yet issued a response to the Afar regional government’s claims.

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