DANSHA, Ethiopia (Reuters) - An escalating conflict in Ethiopia’s restive Tigray region has killed hundreds of people, sources on the government side said, even as the prime minister sought on Monday to reassure the world his nation was not sliding into civil war.The flare-up in the northern area bordering Eritrea and Sudan threatens to destabilise Africa’s second most populous nation, where ethnic conflict has already killed hundreds since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took over in 2018. Reuters reporters travelling in Tigray and the neighbouring Amhara region saw trucks packed with armed militia and pickups with mounted machine-guns rushing to the front line in support of the federal government push. Some militia members waved the Ethiopian national flag. Abiy, the continent’s youngest leader at 44, won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for democratic reforms and for making peace with Eritrea. But last week the prime minister, who is from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, launched a campaign against forces loyal to Tigrayan leaders whom he accused of attacking a military base in the town of Dansha. “Concerns that Ethiopia will descend into chaos are unfounded and a result of not understanding our context deeply,” he tweeted on Monday. “Our rule of law operation is aimed at guaranteeing peace and stability.”