NAIROBI (Somaliguardian) – Police in Ethiopia’s Somali region arrested 28 people for financing Tigrayan forces battling Ethiopian troops in the north of the country, a senior security official said on Saturday, amid fears raised about a possibility that the conflict in Tigray may spill over to other parts of the Horn of Africa nation.
Regional police chief Gen. Mohamed Hassan Ali said the arrested people were financiers of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which had earlier been designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian parliament.
Police launched manhunt operation to detain other key financiers of the Tigrayan rebels and sympathizers, he added.
“TPLF war is against all of Ethiopia’s ethnic populations, because they want a return of their 27-year-old reign of terror,” police boss of the Ethiopian Somali region said.
It comes weeks after police in Ethiopia’s capital detained hundreds of Tigrayans, accused of being sympathizers of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front following the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from key towns in the north.
President of the Somali region Mustafe Mohamed Omar (Agjar) bid farewell to hundreds of regional special forces headed for Tigray last week to join the fight against Tigray rebels, days after troops from Amhara, Oromia, Afar and other regions mobilized for a new showdown with forces loyal to the northern region’s ruling party.
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