Ethiopia: Tigray Rebels Fire Rockets at Resort City

TPLF aiming to overthrow Abiy Ahmed's government, reclaim power, says senior US diplomat

Addis Getachew 20.11.2020

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia 

Rockets were fired at the resort city of Bahir Dar, capital of Ethiopia’s Amhara State, authorities said on Friday.

"The rocket attack occurred at around 1:40 a.m. today," the regional communications bureau said in a statement.

The attack was carried out by forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), it added.

There were no casualties in the attack and further investigations are underway, according to the statement.

The Ethiopian army has launched an operation in the northern Tigray region on Nov. 4, after separatist TPLF forces stormed a base, killing soldiers and looting military assets.

On Nov. 13, TPLF forces fired rockets at the airports of Bahir Dar and Gondar cities, followed by another rocket attack on Asmara, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern neighbor Eritrea.

Meanwhile, Tibor Nagy, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said on Thursday that the TPLF is aiming to topple the government of Ethiopian premier Abiy Ahmed.

"It seems like they [the TPLF] are doing this more to depose the prime minister from power and to reassert themselves into the prominent position that they had atop the Ethiopian political spectrum for the last 27 years," Nagy said in a statement.