AP Photo/Cara Anna
- Rebels from Ethiopia's north have neared the country's capital, Axios reported.
- But the State Department said on Monday that there will be no Kabul-style airlift for US citizens.
- It urged them to leave immediately, adding that there are still commercial flights available.
President Joe Biden's State Department issued a stark notice to US citizens in Ethiopia on Monday, warning them that the embassy is "unlikely" to facilitate an escape if commercial flights become unavailable as Tigrayan rebels near the country's capital.
In a security alert, the department urged US citizens to leave immediately, adding that there are still commercial flights available from the country's capital Addis Ababa.
But, the statement said, there will be no Afghanistan-style military airlift like the one that took place in August after Kabul fell to the Taliban.
"There are no plans to fly the US military into Ethiopia to facilitate evacuations or replicate the contingency effort we recently undertook in Afghanistan, which was a unique situation for many reasons," a senior State Department official told reporters on Monday, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, the US has reportedly placed special operation forces in neighboring Djibouti to provide assistance to it embassy if the situation worsens, a military official and two sources familiar with the situation told the network.
Stability in the east African nation continues to spiral as Tigrayan rebels, who hail from the country's north, and their allies made it to within 200 miles of Addis Ababa, Axios reported on Tuesday.
It's estimated that tens of thousands of people have been killed in the yearlong war between the Ethiopian government and fighters from the north, the AP reported on Monday.
The conflict has featured allegations of rape, executions, and other atrocities, the New York Times reported last week.
Ongoing violence has led to fears that the country, which holds 115 million people and is Africa's second-most populous, could turn into an existing humanitarian crisis into a broader regional issue, Axios said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a recent interview with CNN that there is "tremendous urgency" to avoid letting the conflict spill into other countries in the region.
He said there's no military solution to the conflict and said the country could be on a "path to destruction."
Earlier in November, the US ordered all non-emergency government workers living in the country to leave immediately, after Ethiopian leaders declared a state of emergency on November 2.
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