Ethiopia on Friday warned the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that the expansion of conflict to parts of the country was pushing it to change its defensive stance if humanitarian overtures for a peaceful resolution are unreciprocated.

The government in late June announced a unilateral ceasefire in the conflict-affected northernmost Tigray regional state.

The move followed a request by the Tigray regional state interim administration, assigned by the federal government after the ouster of the TPLF, which used to rule the region.

However, the Ethiopian government on Friday said the situation in Tigray and the unilateral humanitarian ceasefire declared by the government, including the need to enhance all-inclusive national dialogue, have been the major preoccupying issues of late.

In a statement Friday, the foreign affairs ministry said, “Regrettably, the TPLF has failed to reciprocate” its gesture, adding that the group “chose to launch new attacks in neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara, which left more than 300,000 people displaced and thousands dead.”

The Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives, the lower house of the Ethiopian parliament, had previously designated the TPLF as a terrorist organization.

The government said, by their actions, the rebels were leaving it with no choice but to defend the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.