Forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region say Eritrean troops are part of the conflict and the war is far from over

CNN — An official from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front has told CNN the war in Ethiopia is far from over and that Eritrean troops are part of the conflict. “We withdrew from Mekelle because we did not want to give them the pretext to bombard the city back to the stone age, to indiscriminately bombard and destroy the town,” Reda, Ethiopia’s former Communications Minister and a member of the TPLF executive council, told CNN by phone from inside the Tigray region. “As we speak there are military engagements in the larger part of the region; we are defending our positions, there have been a series of offensives and we are taking defensive positions, it won’t be long before we reverse and launch a counter offensive.” Reda told CNN he feared that the conflict was descending into ethnic cleansing, warning that Abiy is “pitting Amhara against Tigray.” In a file photo from June 2016, Getachew Reda, Ethiopia's former communications minister and a member of the TPLF executive council, speaks during a press conference in Addis Ababa. Reda contradicted Abiy’s assertion that the war was over and said the TPLF have launched multiple strikes against neighboring Eritrea because he claimed “90% of the forces operating in Tigray are from Eritrea.” He called on the international community to intervene in the Ethiopia conflict. “There are still operational issues of a logistical nature, some of them are of a security nature, that are being worked out, so that we can proceed with the missions,” said Jens Laerke, the spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, adding that “everyone, of course, working full speed to make that happen.” Tigray refugees who fled the conflict in northern Ethiopia ride a bus to a temporary shelter near the Sudan-Ethiopia border on Tuesday, December 1.