Say the least. This is a night that started off with us airing from the armenian side admitting to have lost the city, which overlooks the capital, which is known in azerbaijan. As we have seen escalation from both sides saying there was multiple rocket attacks, armenians and others saying they are defending their positions of trying to make sure they hold the territory that they have. And then you heard from the armenian Prime Minister announcing the deal and it has been confirmed by the kremlin. Breaking news now from peru, where congress has voted in favor of impeaching the president. He is accused of accepting bribes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies thatwon public works contracts. It came from his second congressional trial must than two months. He denies all of the allegations against him. Donald trump Selection Campaign team in the white house has repeated their allegations of fraud and socalled illegal votes as they press ahead with challenging the results. Trump is refusing to concede defeat to president elect joe biden. Lawsuits are being launched across several battleground states. William barr has authorize federal prosecutors to pursue investigations into alleged voting irregularities. But in a letter sent to prosecutors he asked them not to chase claims that are fanciful or farfetched. News continues here on al jazeera. Coming up next is inside story. Stay with us. Tension is running high and ethiopia. The Prime Minister is stepping up a military offensive in the northern region, and he sacked a number of top officials. The how far will he go, and is there a risk of escalation. This is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program. Ethiopias Prime Minister has reshuffled his cabinet and top military leadership. He sacked the army chief head of intelligence and the foreign minister. The foreign minister has launched a military operation in the northern region. The offensive comes after months of growing tensions between the federal government. He accuse them of attempting to undermine his leadership and move to dissolve the regional government. But they say he is not a legitimate leader, since he postponed elections this year due to covid19. This a they are being targeted unfairly. As leaders have called on the African Union to intervene in allout civil war. He says the offensive will ensue when you when the rebels are brought to justice. Heres the report from malcolm webb in kenyas capital, nairobi. The leadership of ethiopia has said the federal government has carried out at least 10 airstrikes and recent days. In the senior darren general said it is intensifying its airstrike on selected targets. Humanitarian workers have heard shelling and heavy fighting in the area of the border between the gray region with all the communications of being cut off and its difficult to get Accurate Information on what exactly is going on. The fighting started last week very both sides blame each other for starting it with the conflict brewing for many months. The leaders dominated ethiopias politics and its military for almost three decades until the Prime Minister took over two years ago. They have been unfairly targeted with prosecutions and arrests as part of a crackdown on past rights abuses and corruption. Ethiopia is due to hold nationwide elections in august that they would postpone. The leadership do not accept that and they said a failure to hold an election with the Prime Minister and his government were no longer legitimate. They had their own Regional Elections in the region and the federal government did not acknowledge and did not accept the results with the situation were both sides are refusing to accept each others legitimacy. About 250 thousand fighters, also a significant part of ethiopias military, including a lot of its artillery stationed in the region. Thats because of past decades long conflict with neighboring array tree a eretria. The military command has defected to its time in the government disputes that. It is clear that pulled sides in this conflict are heavily armed and there is a high risk of a bloody and did civil war. Lets bring in our guests. All of them all of them joining us. William davis is a Senior Analyst for ethiopia. The president of somali Regional State of ethiopia and a part of the governing party. And the assistant professor of law at school of law. A warm welcome to you all. What are you hearing about how the party is fighting . Its hard to get really solid reliable information about that. Is there has been fairly sustained fighting in the western part. That was where the forces allege they attacked the military base. Fairly sustained fighting there and reports are tens of casualties. I have heard some people are receiving reports of far more. Then there was a bombardment of the federal airstrikes and military installations around the capital. That was the mc or standing of the situation that was the understanding of the situation. He replaced his army chief, deputy army chief, a new formal minister all appointed on sunday. What are the reasons for that . This is part of the usual shake up the Prime Minister has been doing the past two years. Nothing particular about this move at this stage. It is enforcing the rule of law and the part of the country. Do you expect the fighting will be intensifying in the coming days. If so, how close does that put the country to allout civil war . I think the federal government is mostly trying to enforce law. As you know they think Prime Minister and inner members the government had issued for the human rights abuses in the deep corruption the state was facing in the past 27 years. It has stated this. We have to look at the progress of how things would go in the coming weeks. The Prime Minister said this is going to be a very limited and hopefully would be finished in a very short time. I think that is what it looks like. I want to get your point of view on just how devastating all of this could be for ethiopia. And also, how destabilizing could all this be for the horn of africa region . I think we need to focus on the here and now. While i entirely understand from the federal governments perspective, arrest warns have been issued, they have not been complied with, the federal government classified it as illegal, and there was a federal effort to remove the leadership. That is all totally understandable from the federal governments perspective. The problem is that the leadership has built up a relatively Strong Security apparatus. There also seems to be a problem that some of the federal military stationed there is not fully supporting the federal intervention, and has sided with the leadership. An additional factor is that this Regional Election that the federal government has classified as illegal, and has led to the attempts to degrade the leadership, that seems to be supportive by a large number of people who may not have massive problems with their leadership, they seem to support them on the score point. The issue is how easy is it going to be to carry out the Law Enforcement operation . This will not be a quick victory , and if there is a victory for the federal government, it will come at a huge cost in terms of human lifes and displaced people. That seems to be a likely prospect. If that does materialize, it would stretch the Ethiopian Armed forces, which is split. It will weaken ethiopias government, it will embolden opponents everywhere in ethiopia, and we could lead to an escalating crisis across the country. And to get your question, if the ethiopian state is significantly destabilized, that will have a massive impact on the horn of africa because its a country of 110 Million People and is the hinge pin country in the region. You heard william talked about the fact that there is concern in some quarters that there could be a fracturing of the military in the north. I am curious to know it your response is to that and also your response to what williams said when he said he believes this is a conflict that could drag on. I dont share the points about siding with it. There is no evidence for that. On the contrary we know that it has been attacked by the t pls police, special place. Why would you attack that is taking orders from this command . We know it pauses a National Causes a national secluded threat. The fact that that may drag on or not drag on does not invalidate all legitimize moved by the Prime Minister and the federal government. Watching it watching the t pl take the people grant some would amount to dereliction of duty and put the country into a violent city wall. Just how strong or are the Security Forces . Are we talking about Paramilitary Forces . How will trained are they and how big other numbers . Is very hard to tell. [inaudible] it was in a radicalized society. The benefits went to a very small click of it. My own thought for it for 17 years. And it breaks my heart when i see this. People who can govern Eyes National unity. What they had was to control power and divide the state by ethnicity and religion and identities. He was a political figure. So i have never seen it in ethiopia. It went out without any to support his governments program. They are together as common sense for the political vision. When he says there is is because of the historic backdrop. This is all very complicated. Its a complicated situation. I want to take a step back and talk specifically about the region for a moment or two. The people make up about 6 of ethiopias population. But for about three decades they wielded enormous power. They have outsized influence. How did they obtain such influence, and how much did it start to wayne when he came to power it begun as a rebel group in the 1970s. They eventually spearheaded the Rebel Alliance that overthrew the regime in 1991. They are keeping up with the dominant power with the ethiopian state was reconstituted in the 1990s. They devised what was instrumental in devising the multinational or ethnic federal system. And many other ethiopians opposed. And then the tplf formed the core that governed ethiopia for that three decade period. That is why the tplf is a prominent force. What has the reaction been from the Prime Minister with regard to calls for mediation, calls for deescalation by the u. N. And others . What does the Prime Minister think when it comes to that . The Prime Minister has demonstrated his readiness for dialogue and for the moderation the last two and a half years. When the tplf was violating every nonpolitical system in ethiopia. When they were violating the constitution and they were going along with the legal elections with illegal elections. There is a level of patient shown for it. However, dialogue is useful. They are enforcing the rule of law and the country without which there has been no country. They can statistically win a 100 to completely refused to take any orders from the central government. Therefore the Prime Minister has ever has already shown it. He is our exhausted the corporate resolution by engaging the tplf continuously. The call for dialogue has come when they are flaunting the laws of the country. Now its about enforcing the rule of law and there is no going back on that. The tplf has chosen confrontation over dialogue and lip service to dialogue is not much. Some of the Senior Leadership has been posting about having missiles that can go up 700 kilometers to strike the capital in other towns. Where have you seen regional leadership . That is a part of the country which they are threatening to strike with missiles. And you have seen the foreign minister between ethiopia, syria and yemen. Yemen are good examples to follow. This is unacceptable. Therefore, not only the Prime Minister but the government and ruling party have exhausted all options. We understand and calls for dialogue, its welcomed, but that cannot substitute for their mandate to enforce the rule of law and keep their country together. I want to get your reaction, but i also want to ask you about the same point. Do you think it can get to a stage where there is perhaps a truce . And if that happens, what comes next . A National Dialogue . What are the steps that need to be taken to make sure it continues to the escalate two de to deescalate. The problem is, for international observers, they seem to forget the political observers. Over the past 27 years the party has made in made a major ideological shift. It is really very difficult to fault the Prime Minister for efforts to peace. He has it extremely patient. But as the president says, some of us are critical, not for waging war, but for extending patients. There are very few people that have controlled state power for far too long. It measures up and taken much earlier, rains would not have been taken as much as we have seen. The only hope i have is that, if at some point there are appropriate Political Forces that want to minimize damage and take about the possibilities of the country. Some of the individuals were the arrest warrant has been issued by the federal government that are former intelligence chief. Obviously, that would live to a more settled political sentiment. It has much broader problems that does not undermine that. There was a space at least for that. Every Political Party has asked the country to opt for meaningful ties. They have rejected that. That is very tragic. My hope is that within the preconditions that will be saved by the government, hopefully this crisis will be contained earlier and its what i said, the state was created for the past 27 years and it was deeply corrupt and deeply racialized. It defeated colonialism. Thailand is the only other country that has that. Given this registry of togetherness, i think that would come out as stronger with these discussions. That would come in the next phase. That is what keeps me optimistic about the political future. I also want to delve into the humanitarian impact of this conflict. The u. N. Says that 9 Million People risk displacement if things continue to deteriorate. Things were dire for many, i believe over 100,000 were already displaced in the region before this conflict began. How concerned are you about how bad things could get on the humanitarian front. I dont think there is much that i need to add to the u. N. Forecast. The issue is that as i have described, there seems to be something as a balance of power. Therefore, whether like the president , you are following a lawenforcement approach that there is a need to restore their rule of law. You are disgusted as a political entity. Regardless of those positions, the issue here is what is the balance of power, and how long is this conflict likely to last. The u. N. Expects this conflict to last a long time. Therefore, there is no quick, swift Law Enforcement operation. I would also add that if people want to remake ethiopias Constitutional Order, the way to do that is through a National Dialogue process, or a similar political process. Trying to remake the Constitutional Order by destroying nationalist entities is more likely to lead to ethiopias fragmentation than its reform in this constitutional arrangement that is being talked about. The conflict is concentrated in west tigre. It is an understandable military objective. It clearly threatens to cause mass threatening among those if the conflict spreads. The issue is not about the objectives are the objections to the tp lf. Its about what is the best way to resolve this in a manner that does not cause absolute devastation for the ford agreed that the people and eventually ethiopia and the broader region. We have run out of time so we will have to leave it there. Thank you to all of our guests. Thank you for watching, you could see the program any time by visiting our website. For further discussion go to our Facebook Page at facebook. Com a. J. Stored aj inside story. Bye for now. Since 2013, wish, the World Innovation summit for help has gathered health care leaders, practitioners and researchers engage with innovativet and organizations. This year it takes place virtually. Register now at wish. Org. Qa. Solitude goes hand in hand with growing old. Refusing to be defined by their age. 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