The TPLF said it is “firmly in control of Kombolcha,” its spokesperson Getachew Reda said on Twitter on Sunday. The group also claimed to have occupied the strategic town of Dessie, 13kms from Kombolcha, and 400kms north of the capital Addis Ababa, on the major road that connects the federal capital to Mekelle, the capital of Tigray Region.
The federal government denied the claims but its spokesperson accused the TPLF of executing more than 100 residents of Kombolcha.
Strategic military loss
The fall of the town of Dessie is a strategic military loss to the federal government, as it marks the furthest south the TPLF has ventured since it launched a counter-offensive into Amhara Region.
The former ruling party, now designated a rebel group by the government in Addis, claims that its presence outside Tigray is meant to “break the siege on the people of Tigray,” a reference to a siege on
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