Ethiopia PM says he will lead army ‘from the battlefront’

By CARA ANNA
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister says he will lead his country’s army “from the battlefront” beginning Tuesday, a dramatic new step in a devastating yearlong war. Abiy Ahmed says that “this is a time when leading a country with martyrdom is needed.” With rival Tigray forces moving closer to the capital, Addis Ababa, his government this month declared a state of emergency. An estimated tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war between Ethiopian and allied forces and fighters from the country’s Tigray region. The United States and others warn that Africa’s second-most populous country could fracture.