At least 70,000 people were displaced in Ethiopia’s Afar region following an extensive military offensive by forces of the outlawed Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The TPLF forces are pushing downward but suffered defeat as they were trying to control the Ethiopian- Djibouti trade route, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) has said in a statement on Thursday.
ENDF said about the fighters killed but Information reaching to APA revealed thousands of TPLF troops largely child soldiers and elderly were killed in the counter attack by the national army. APA also learned that more than 1500 others surrendered to the national army.
“May Day” the force that it deployed in the region is entirely routed, according to Colonel Getnet Adane, Director of public relations within the Ethiopian Defense Force.
“As it turns out, the TPLF was unable to prevail in the Afar region and continue a military offensive. It has suffered a crushing defeat in Alele Sulula area of the Afar region,” he said.
Furthermore, he remarked that the TPLF seized the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire that the Ethiopian government introduced at the end of June as an opportunity to launch an extensive offensive in multiple fronts.
MG/abj/APA