Ethiopia's Upper House of Parliament, the House of Federation (HoF) on Saturday approved a resolution to form a caretaker administration for the country's northernmost Tigray regional state, local media reported.

"The HoF has passed a decision to abolish the existing illegal Tigray regional assembly and executive, and form a caretaker administration," reported state media outlet Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), adding the caretaker administration can appoint executive organ members.

"The caretaker administration will be mandated with conducting a constitutionally acceptable election and to implement decisions passed on by the federal government," further said the report.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Wednesday ordered military operations against the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the northern state of Tigray in response to an attack on a government army base earlier in the day.

In recent weeks, there have been rising tensions between Ahmed's Prosperity Party and the TPLF, with each side accusing the other of trying to destabilize the country.

The Ethiopian government has been blaming the TPLF, which was one of the four coalition fronts of Ethiopia's former ruling party the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), for masterminding various treasonous acts across different parts of the country with an overarching goal of destabilizing the East African country.  

Three of the former four EPRDF coalition members had last year joined other regional parties in establishing the Prosperity Party, as the TPLF refused to join.

The mounting differences between the federal government and TPLF exacerbated in September this year, when the Tigray regional government decided to go with its planned regional elections, which the Ethiopian parliament had previously postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.