Nigeria, Sept. 24 -- Months of rising tension in Ethiopia have now escalated into renewed armed clashes in the northern Tigray region, raising concerns that the country could slide back into a civil war.

The Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), the party which controls the northern region of Tigray, on Wednesday, accused each other of launching offensives a day after the reported gunfire in Tonsa, in the Afar Region, near the Tigray border.

The exchange began after the rebel forces in Tigray in northern Ethiopia took control of the airport, compelling the state-owned carrier to cancel flights to the troubled region.

The Tigray army argued that it was responding to a "full-scale offensive along multiple ...