ADDIS ABABA, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Thirty five Ethiopians have been charged before an Ethiopian court for inciting violence and attempting to carry terror acts between 2016 and January 2017 on behalf of the outlawed Patriotic Front and Ginbot7 rebel groups.

The defendants are accused of attempted terror acts and inciting violence by arming themselves with guns in northern and southern Gondar zones in the Amhara regional state, local media FBC reported on Wednesday.

In particular the charge alleges that the defendants tried to carry out terror attacks on civilians, public enterprises and security officers by recruiting other members and receiving 800,000 birr (34,528 U.S. dollars) funding from leaders of the group residing in the United States, Germany, Sweden and its bitter rival Eritrea.

Ethiopia's Amhara region, which Gondar city is located, was convulsed in unrest for most of the second half of 2016 for various reasons that include a rumored disgruntlement of reallocation of a district to neighboring region.

Ethiopia and Eritrea have been locked in a state of uneasy armed standoff with each side blaming the other for supporting rebel groups as proxies, including the outlawed Patriotic Front and Ginbot-7 rebel group.

Eritrea had been a province of Ethiopia from 1952 to 1993, until a bitter 30-year-armed struggle followed by a referendum in 1993, gave the Red Sea nation its independence from Ethiopia. The two, soon after, went into war over contested border areas between 1998 and 2000 which left tens of thousands of people dead from both sides.