(CNN) The US military has positioned US special operations forces in Djibouti to be ready to provide assistance to the US Embassy in Ethiopia if the situation worsens, according to one military official and two sources familiar with the movements. The activation of some Army rangers from the 1/75 Battalion suggests that the United States is growing increasingly concerned about the deteriorating security situation as armed groups allied against the Ethiopian government have advanced south toward the capital of Addis AbabaIn what a defense official with direct knowledge of the matters described as "prudent planning," three warships in the Middle East have also been put on standby to provide support for evacuations if that becomes necessary, although State Department officials have warned that there are no plans to carry out a large-scale military-led evacuation in Ethiopia. "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 Monday, stressing that US citizens should immediately depart using available commercial flights. "We are always, of course engaged in contingency planning for hypotheticals, but again, with the airports wide open, there's no reason for that at all," they said.

Source: Ethiopian News November 23, 2021 03:04 UTC