Witnesses report Eritrean soldiers in Ethiopian town

Two Adigrat residents said they saw dozens of soldiers they identified as Eritrean driving through the northern Ethiopian town on Wednesday, as fighting between Ethiopian federal forces and a Tigrayan armed alliance heightened tensions between the neighboring countries. The accounts have not been independently verified, and reports differ on whether Eritrea’s information minister denied its troops were present. The residents told Reuters they saw soldiers in two trucks and identified them by their off-white camouflage uniforms. Adigrat is in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, near the Eritrean border. Separately, two eyewitnesses told AFP they saw Eritrean soldiers heading south, and an anonymous local official said troops had been in the town for days. The official said residents were concerned. The accounts could not be independently confirmed, and no official confirmation or independently described physical evidence was cited. A commander of the Tigray Peace Force, a militia that has fought alongside Ethiopian federal forces, said Eritrean troops had entered Tigray in uniform and with heavy weapons. That assertion, too, was not independently verified in the reports.