Rebels Advance Toward Capital As Ethiopia Moves Deeper Into War

Ethiopian rebel forces advanced toward the country’s capital, threatening to widen a civil war raging in Africa’s second-most populous nation marked by allegations of ethnically motivated atrocities and man-made famine.

Fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and allied militias in recent days have captured two strategic towns about 230 miles from Addis Ababa, expanding a conflict that for the past year had largely been confined to Ethiopia’s north.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered citizens to sign up for military training and gave security forces authority to detain without a warrant anyone they suspect of cooperating with rebel forces, which the government describes as terrorist groups.

In a speech on Wednesday marking the first anniversary of the start of the conflict, Mr. Ahmed, who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, promised to reverse the rebels’ progress and said he would bury his government’s enemies “with our blood and bones.”

Any rebel assault on the capital would likely face strong resistance from government troops and residents who remain largely hostile to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which led an authoritarian regime in Ethiopia for nearly three decades until the 2018 rise to power of Mr. Ahmed.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people marched in Addis Ababa, whose gleaming skyscrapers testify to the country’s recent rapid economic growth, in support of Mr. Ahmed, accusing foreign media and the U.S. of trying to undermine the prime minister and his government.

“We support our government in its struggle to defend Ethiopia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Yohannes Aschalew, a taxi driver who joined the demonstrators. “The TPLF will never rule Ethiopia again.”

The U.S. has called on both sides to agree to an immediate cease-fire and dial down inflammatory rhetoric. On Saturday, the State Department ordered the departure of nonemergency staff and their families and urged all American citizens to leave Ethiopia.

Senior U.S. officials have in recent days warned that the expansion of the conflict is putting at risk millions of lives in this country of more than 110 million people that has been a Washington ally in the fragile Horn of Africa region.

For members of the Tigrayan ethnic group living in Addis Ababa and other Ethiopian cities, the expansion of the conflict has meant an escalation of a crackdown by police and government security forces.

Several Tigrayan people interviewed by The Wall Street Journal said they have gone into hiding after relatives and friends were detained in recent days and weeks and struggled to find lawyers to represent them.

“We are being terrorized all over the country,” said one man who has been staying at a friend’s house in Addis Ababa after police raided his workplace and arrested several Tigrayans.

“I have two brothers and an uncle in jail. We can’t find where to hide anymore,” he said. “It’s a very scary situation.”

Hundreds of Tigrayan staff at the state-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation were put on indefinite leave, according to an employee. Police, who have been going house-to-house in some neighborhoods saying they are looking for illegally acquired guns and foreign currency, have also detained Tigrayan priests, deacons and administrative staff at Coptic churches in central Addis Ababa.

Billene Seyoum, a spokeswoman for Mr. Ahmed, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the detentions. She has previously said the government was pursuing TPLF collaborators to preserve national security.

A joint report by the U.N.’s human rights agency and the government-affiliated Ethiopian Human Rights Commission this week said all parties to the conflict—including the TPLF and pro-government fighters from the military, militias and their allies from neighboring Eritrea—have committed grave human-rights abuses, including potential crimes against humanity and war crimes.

During one alleged massacre in the early days of the conflict, witnesses recounted how Tigrayan militias killed around 200 civilians using axes and machetes. This April, Eritrean soldiers allegedly paraded some 600 naked men down the main street of their town in central Tigray.

The report, which focused on alleged incidents up to August also called for further investigation into allegations that the government has used denial of food and deliberate disruptions to planting and harvesting as weapons in Tigray.

The U.S. and U.N. agencies have repeatedly accused the Ethiopian government of deliberately blocking humanitarian aid from reaching some 5 million Tigrayans, leading to famine-like conditions in the region.

Murithi Mutiga, project director for the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group, said the advances by antigovernment rebels were complicating diplomatic efforts to put an end to the conflict. “All the actors want to settle this on the battlefield,” he said.