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Image posted, Reuters
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said that the military operation in the northern Tigray region is entering the “final stage” now that the three-day deadline given to the fighters to surrender has expired.
So far, at least 27,000 people have fled the fighting in Tigray to neighboring Sudan.
The United Nations said a “large-scale humanitarian crisis” was unfolding.
The conflict began two weeks ago with escalating tension between the Ethiopian Federal Government and officials in Tigray.
The Tigray Popular Liberation Front, the party responsible for the region, believes that the Abe government is illegal because it postponed the general elections that were scheduled for last August.
The Federal Government made the decision to postpone the elections due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
Abe ordered the military operation after accusing the TPLF of treason for sending its fighters to occupy an army military base.
The TPLF denied the accusation.
The party’s adviser, Viseha Tessema, a former Ethiopian diplomat, told the BBC that federal government forces were bombing civilian sites in Mekele, the main city of Tigray.
“The Tigrayans have not been wrong, they are in their homes and in their churches,” Vessiha said.
But the federal government denied targeting civilians and said its airstrikes were targeting the Tigrayan army.
The United Nations fears that the number of people fleeing Ethiopia is only a fraction of those who have been forced from their homes by the fighting, but aid organizations are currently unable to access the Tigray region.
The conflict is also reported to have killed hundreds, but obtaining information from inside Tigray is difficult due to the communications blackout.
What else did Abe say?
“The three-day period granted to the Tigrayan special forces and militias to surrender to National Defense … has ended today,” Abe said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“Once this deadline is over, the final and decisive work to implement the law will be completed in the next few days,” he added.
A statement posted on the official Twitter account of the Prime Minister’s Office stated that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces had carried out what was described as “precision air operations” outside the northern region of the capital of Tigray, Mikkeli.
He said that the accusations circulating in the international media about the air strikes against Mikkeli himself and the civilian victims were false.
He said his government “is ready to receive and reintegrate our Ethiopian brothers fleeing to neighboring countries.”
Kenya and Uganda have called for negotiations to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict.
However, the Ethiopian government has ruled out talks with the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front.
The Tigrayans fired missiles at neighboring Eritrea this weekend, escalating the conflict in which hundreds of people were killed on both sides and threatening to destabilize other areas of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
More than 27,000 refugees fled to Sudan.
Image posted, Reuters
Members of the pro-government forces.
Government forces had carried out “precision air operations” outside Mikkeli, according to a government emergency squad, and ground forces had made some progress.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigray leaders. With communications primarily cut off and media prohibited, the claims of neither party can be independently verified.
Image posted, Reuters
Thousands of refugees fled to Sudan.
The Reuters news agency quoted Matt Bryden, founder of the Nairobi-based Sahan Regional Research Center, as saying that the Tigrayans could hold onto their positions as the army advances towards the capital in the direction of rugged mountainous areas.
“I think that when the Ethiopian army enters the heights, they will probably start heavy fighting,” he said.
