KENYA: Inter‐communal Violence

Tigray In-Fighting Intensifies BBC Monitoring said on October 17th that the in-fighting in the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) that led to the sacking of its deputy chairman Getachew Reda (p.24597C), coupled with the fact that the ex-rebel group has not demobilised hundreds of thousands of fighters as agreed in the peace deal, risks plunging Ethiopia into a new conflict that would further destabilise it and the wider Horn of Africa.Eritrea, which supported the government in its war against the TPLF, has refused to withdraw its forces from Tigray, being reluctant to leave amid the slow implementation of the peace agreement and a falling out between Asmara and Addis Ababa.A senior commander of the Tigray Security Forces (TSF) in Tigray Region, Gen (retd) Yohannes Weldegiorgis, on October 16th warned the rival leaders of the TPLF against trying to manipulate TSF for their selfish ambitions, saying they were "playing with fire".The two factions, one led by chairman Debretsion Gebremichael and the other by Getachew are jostling for control of TSF and Tigray Region.