Tigrayan rebel forces are still in Afar, the Ethiopian government has said.
It came after a rebels said they were leaving the area. Legesse Tulu, a government spokesman, told state media reports of a rebel pullout were “big lies".
Afar police said Tigrayan forces are in Koneba, Abala, Berhale and Magale with no changes since Monday, Reuters reported.
Earlier, the Tigray People's Liberation Front had said the Tigrayan forces were withdrawing so humanitarian convoys could enter the famine-hit area.
Little aid has come into Tigray, where more than 90 per cent of the population is short of food.
The UN has blamed government bureaucracy and fighting for blocking convoys.
“We have already withdrawn from all parts of Afar,” a rebel spokesman, Kindeya Gebrehiwot, told AFP. “Humanitarian and political issues should be delinked.”
On March 25 the federal government announced a unilateral ceasefire, saying it would allow humanitarian aid to enter.
Tigrayan forces agreed to respect the ceasefire on the condition that sufficient aid was delivered to their region “within reasonable time".
The war in northern Ethiopia broke out in November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel peace prize winner, sent troops into Tigray in response to what he said were rebel attacks on army camps.
Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2022/04/29/ethiopia-denies-rebels-in-afar-have-pulled-out/
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