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.

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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”.

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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.

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