ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — The interim government of Ethiopia’s Tigray region appealed for the Ethiopian federal government to intervene after a faction of the Tigray People's Liberation Front seized control of two major towns, leaving several people wounded and raising fears of a return to civil war.
On Tuesday the TPLF faction seized Adigrat, the second-biggest town in Tigray, and appointed a new administrator, ousting the office-holder loyal to the interim government. On Wednesday night, it took control of Adi-Gudem, a town near the regional capital, Mekele. Several people in Adi-Gudem suffered gunshot wounds when armed forces attempted to occupy a government building.
The TPLF fought a brutal two-year war against federal forces which ended in November 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement and the formation of a TPLF-led interim government. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the fighting which began in November 2020, with millions displaced and many left near famine in Africa’s second-most populous country.
However, since the war ended, the TPLF has splintered. In October, its leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, expelled the head of the interim government, Getachew Reda, from the party along with four members of his cabinet.
In retaliation, Reda, who was the chief negotiator of the peace agreement, temporarily suspended four senior military commanders who he believed were aligned with Gebremichael’s faction.
“The region may be on the brink of another crisis,” read a statement Wednesday from the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau, which is part of the interim government.
Reda has described the TPLF's recent actions as a “potential coup attempt."
In a televised interview, he emphasized the need for the international community — one of the key guarantors of the Pretoria Peace Agreement — to closely monitor the escalating situation in the war-torn region.
“The parties to the Pretoria Agreement should really take into account the deteriorating situation in Tigray and the far-reaching ramifications of the unraveling of the Pretoria agreements,” he said.
TPLF deputy chairman Amanuel Assefa told The Associated Press that the current crises have nothing to do with the Pretoria agreement but are largely related to law enforcement.
“The TPLF and the Tigray forces are the rightful owners of the Pretoria Agreement. Therefore there is no reason to engage in any actions that would violate that”, he said.
FILE - Ethiopians holding national flags protest against what they say is interference by outsiders in the country's internal affairs and against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party of Tigray's fugitive leaders, at a rally organized by the city administration in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022. (AP Photo, File)
Russian forces have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia's Kursk border region, officials claimed Thursday, as U.S. officials sought the Kremlin's response to a proposed 30-day ceasefire in the three-year war that Ukraine has endorsed.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin's high-profile visit to his troops came as U.S. President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The U.S. on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The U.S. president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that U.S. negotiators were on their way to Russia, but he wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
Senior U.S. officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart. She also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly including Putin.
By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.
The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine's daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.
Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
Putin added that in the future “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.
Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed late Wednesday that Russian forces were in control of Sudzha.
Ukraine’s top military head, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented number of strikes on Kursk and that as a result Sudzha had been almost completely destroyed. He did not comment on whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement but said it was “maneuvering (troops) to more advantageous lines.”
Meanwhile, Major General Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Wednesday. He told the outlet he was not given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, accompanied by Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, second left, visits military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, accompanied by Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, second left, visits military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin accompanied by Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, behind Putin, visits military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
FILE - A Ukrainian soldier walks past at a city hall in Sudzha, Kursk region, Russia, Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. This image was approved by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry before publication. (AP Photo, File)
In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov as he visits military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
