Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is on the front line with the army fighting Tigrayan forces in the north-eastern Afar region, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting reported on Friday.
Mr Abiy was wearing military fatigues and speaking to the television station in the Afaan Oromo and Amharic languages, according to the broadcast. Reuters could not independently verify exactly where it was filmed.
“What you see over there is a mountain that was captured by the enemy until yesterday. Now we have been able to fully capture it,” Mr Abiy said, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
“The morale of the army is very exciting,” he added, promising to capture the town of Chifra, on the border between Tigray and Afar, “today".
“We won't flinch backward till we bury the enemy and ensure Ethiopia's freedom. What we need to see Ethiopia that stands by itself, and we will die for it,” Mr Abiy said.
The Prime Minister announced late on Monday that he was going to the front lines to direct the fight against rebellious forces from the northern region of Tigray and their allies.
Tigrayan forces have threatened to push into the capital Addis Ababa, or to try to cut off a corridor linking landlocked Ethiopia with the region's largest port.
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Captive Ethiopian soldiers arrive at the Mekele Rehabilitation Centre in Tigray, Ethiopia, after a four-day journey from Abdi Eshir. All photos: AFP -
Women welcome Tigray People's Liberation Front fighters as they return to Mekele after seizing control of the city in June 2021. -
Ethiopians who fled the Tigray conflict wait to charge their phones at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, Sudan. -
A member of the Afar Special Forces stands in front of the debris of a house on the outskirts of the village of Bisober in Tigray. -
People hold candles and Ethiopian flags at a memorial service for the victims of the Tigray conflict in Addis Ababa. -
An Ethiopian refugee who fled fighting in Tigray waits behind a fence in a camp in Sudan. -
Refugees living in a camp in Sudan after fleeing violence in Tigray. -
A woman walks among the remains of a destroyed factory in Ataye, Ethiopia, where more than 100 civilians died in a recent flare-up of violence. -
Two members of the Amhara militia ride in the back of a pick-up truck. Amharas and Tigrayans were uneasy neighbours before the current fighting, with tension over land sparking violent clashes. -
Militias from the Amhara region have been involved in the fighting in Tigray. -
Tens of thousands of Ethiopians gather at a rally organised by the mayor of Addis Ababa to show support for the military's efforts in Tigray. -
Zeleke Alabachew, farmer and militia fighter, tends to his land near the village of Tekeldengy, Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation. -
People celebrate the liberation of opposition leaders in the city of Alamata, Ethiopia. -
A family fleeing violence sit in a former classroom at May Weyni secondary school, now hosting 10,500 displaced people, in Mekele, capital of Tigray. -
Ethiopian refugees travel to Sudan to escape violence in Tigray. -
Ethiopian refugees gather to celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Tigray People's Liberation Front at Um Raquba refugee camp in Gedaref, Sudan. The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics before being ousted from their regional stronghold last year. -
An Ethiopian refugee sets up a tent in a camp in the town of Gedaref, Sudan, after being transported from the border reception centre. -
Pro-Tigrayan demonstrators display placards during a protest in front of the chancellery in Berlin. -
The aftermath of heavy shelling in Wukro, a city north of Mekele, in Ethiopia.
US Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman said this week that the Tigrayan forces had been able to make progress south towards the capital but that the military had beaten back several attempts to cut the transport corridor on the eastern front.
The spread of the year-old conflict into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions means that 9.4 million need food aid as a direct result of the continuing conflict, the UN's World Food Programme announced on Friday. More than 80 per cent of those in need are behind the battle lines, it added.
“Corridors into Tigray had been closed due to the recent Tigrayan offences on Afar and Amhara, as well as severe disruptions in clearances from federal government. Since mid-July, less than a third of the supplies required … have entered the region,” the organisation said.
