GIULIA PARAVICINI ETHIOPIAN refugees were flooding into Sudan as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal troops battled well-armed local forces in Tigray and protests against the northern region's leaders were planned elsewhere. With outsiders barred and communications down, it was hard to know how Abiy's week-long offensive against regional rulers the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) was progressing. But security sources and state media have spoken of hundreds of deaths in the mountainous state of more than 5 million people, where federal warplanes have been pounding arms and fuel depots as soldiers fight on the ground. Both sides have claimed successes,…