Ethiopia Alleges Sudan and Egypt Back Tigray Rebels Amid Renewed Fighting

Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, Ethiopia’s army commander, has formally accused Sudan and Egypt of providing support to armed groups engaged in combat against federal troops in the country’s northern region. The allegations emerged as heavy fighting resumed between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and government forces, sparking fears that the nation is sliding back into the devastation experienced during the 2020-2022 civil war, which claimed an estimated 600,000 lives.

Speaking on the army’s YouTube channel on Sunday, Jula described the opponents as “forces that are organised and allied to serve the interests of external forces.” He asserted that these groups could not achieve any territorial gains without being “backed, supported and supplied by Sudan, Egypt and other external powers.”

The Sudanese military quickly rejected the accusations, issuing a statement on Sunday that labeled the claims “baseless.” In a counter-allegation, Sudan’s military accused the Ethiopian-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of receiving training, supplies, and drone support from within Ethiopia’s territory. Sudan has been engaged in a brutal civil war against the RSF since 2023.

Tensions escalated further on Sunday when a drone strike hit the headquarters of Tigrai TV in the Tigrayan capital of Mekelle. The station is considered the primary media outlet for the rebel authorities. While Al Jazeera reported that Ethiopia’s government had previously announced the indefinite suspension of the station’s operations, no official comment was made regarding the drone attack. The strike follows a significant communications blackout in the region that began last Friday, disrupting phone and internet services.

Malcolm Webb, reporting from Nairobi, noted uncertainty regarding the source of the communications disruption. “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 said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed being “particularly troubled by reports of the use of drones as well as incidents of harm to civilians,” though no confirmed casualty figures have been released. Meanwhile, the TPLF, which has allied with six other armed groups under the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival, continues its offensive. The alliance, formed last week to overthrow Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, has seized airports and launched attacks into neighboring Afar and Amhara regions.

On the ground, a source told Al Jazeera Arabic that Ethiopian army forces have taken control of Alamata in southern Tigray and are advancing toward Mekhoni and Maychew. Conversely, AFP reports indicate that TPLF fighters captured the town of Erebti in the Afar region near the Tigray border on Sunday and are pushing toward Afdera, approximately 100km east. Analysts suggest this offensive mirrors strategies from the previous conflict, aiming to cut off supply lines from Djibouti, which serves as the primary import route for Ethiopia, including fuel.