The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) launched an unprovoked assault in the neighboring Afar region, the Afar region said on Monday, the latest sign in a flare-up of the conflict in the area. The alleged offensive targeted an area of the Kilbeti Resu zone and the TPLF forces have controlled Ab’ala and Magale woredas and the region’s security forces have engaged in fierce clashes with the forces in Berehale town, the Afar regional state communication bureau said in a statement.

Ahmed Kaloyta, a spokesman for the Afar region, said that tens of thousands of people had been displaced over three days in the Afar region and TPLF forces are committing atrocities as they did before.

The TPLF, for its part, said that the federal government was using the clash in Afar to stall the delivery of humanitarian assistance. The TPLF has accused the federal government of using Eritrean and Afar regional forces to instigate a clash on Ab’ala, seeking a pretext to block humanitarian aid in the Tigray region.

Trucks bearing food aid were stuck at a checkpoint outside the Tigray region for a second day Tuesday, the French news agency AFP reported citing aid workers. On Sunday 27 trucks carrying 800 tonnes of food left for Mekele from the Afar region along the land route, AFP wrote.