According to a spokesperson for the Tigrayan forces, an air and ground offensive by Ethiopian troops and their allies against rebellious forces from the northern Tigray region is intensifying, with "staggering" casualties.
The Ethiopian military and allies from the Amhara region, according to Getachew Reda of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), are fighting Tigrayan forces on several fronts in both the Amhara and Afar regions, which border Tigray.
An Ethiopian military spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The military and government have refused to acknowledge the start of a new offensive, which the TPLF claims started with airstrikes last week, just days after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn in for a new five-year term.
"It's a continuing battle, and the number of casualties is staggering," Getachew said, declining to say how many people have died or been injured. He claimed that fighting had resumed in Afar, in the Haro and Chifra areas near the Amhara border, and near the town of Weldiya in Amhara.
Because the area is closed to journalists and many phone lines are down, Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the ground or confirm casualty numbers.
The fighting has sparked fears that it will further destabilize the 109 million-strong Horn of Africa nation and push Tigray deeper into famine. When the conflict erupted in November 2020, Ethiopia's neighbor, the secretive and repressive nation of Eritrea, sent troops across the border to support the Ethiopian military.
Aid workers told Reuters that Eritrean fighters were still inside Ethiopia and participating in the conflict, citing witnesses.
Yemane Gebremeskel, Eritrea's Information Minister, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Eritrean forces were fighting Tigrayans in Berhale, a town in the Afar region, according to another humanitarian worker citing witnesses.
On Tuesday, the US State Department said it was considering using economic sanctions to punish those responsible for the violence.
Since the war in Tigray broke out, thousands of civilians have been killed and millions have been displaced. Tigrayan forces were initially defeated, but in July they reclaimed the majority of the region and pushed into the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands more people.
Amhara claims control of Western Tigray, a vast swath of fertile farmland with a strategically important border with Sudan, which it has held since the fighting began. The government of Tigray is now surrounded by hostile forces, and the UN claims it is blocking food aid to hundreds of thousands of starving people, which it denies.
According to the latest United Nations analysis, more than 90% of the population in Tigray requires food assistance, and about 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions.
“We are seeing acute malnutrition rates comparable to those seen at the start of the Somalia famine in 2011,” he said.
In Somalia, 260,000 people died as a result of the famine.
Since July, Tedros said, no medical supplies had been sent to Tigray.
"Due to a lack of fuel and supplies, only a fraction of Tigray's health facilities are still operational. People with chronic illnesses are dying as a result of a lack of food and medicine, he said at a press conference in Geneva.
Billene Seyoum, the prime minister's spokesperson, and Lia Tadesse, the health minister, did not respond to Reuters requests for comment on Tedros' statement.