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Fighting has broken out in western Tigray, in one of the most serious breaches yet of the three-year-old peace deal between Ethiopia’s federal government and fighters in the northern region.
Tigray’s regional government said in a statement from Mekelle, the Tigrayan capital, that federal forces opened the assault at dawn on Saturday, advancing from the direction of Shererina, near the Sudanese border.
Armed forces from Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland state have attacked a camp held by federal government troops, in the latest flare-up between regional leaders and the Somali government.
Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni told a news conference on Wednesday in the regional capital Garowe that the assault was “a planned security operation” to send a “clear message to anyone working against the Puntland government”.
The bodies of 15 Tigray rebel fighters have been recovered from a river along the Sudan-Ethiopia border after renewed fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), according to a medical source.
The hospital in the Sudanese border area also received six wounded people, while more Ethiopians crossed into Sudan in recent days to escape the violence.
Authorities in northeastern Somalia’s Puntland state on Saturday said they were closely monitoring what they described as military maneuvers by Somalia’s federal government in the central town of Galkayo, warning that the developments could threaten regional stability and Puntland’s governing institutions.
Puntland authorities accused the federal government of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of attempting to use military and political pressure to weaken Puntland’s governance system, saying the movements around Galkayo risk provoking a confrontation between the two sides.
Yemen’s Houthi group on Monday declared “a maritime blockade” on Saudi Arabia effective immediately.
Military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a televised statement on the group’s Al-Masirah television that a ban on Saudi-linked maritime navigation “has entered into force from the moment of issuing this statement.”