[ad_1]
Image posted, AFP
Federal forces have been fighting the TPLF since November 4
For the first time since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the end of the four-week military operation, the BBC managed to speak to some people in Mekele, the capital of the Ethiopian state of Tigray.
“It’s really scary. It’s really difficult. I don’t think Tigrayans have ever had such a difficult time,” a tigray yelled over the phone in a voice that seemed desperate.
The BBC has spent days trying to talk to people in the city of almost half a million people.
Telephone lines were down, and as a result of the electricity shortage, satellite Internet connections were difficult.
But we were able to have short conversations with two people in the city about their visions of what was happening.
Mikkeli, the capital of Tigray, is inhabited by approximately half a million people.
We agree not to reveal your identities to protect your safety.
Residents have suffered from a lack of basic services since the conflict began on November 4.
The two we spoke with said that things have not changed since Ethiopian federal forces entered Mekele a week ago.
“There is still no electricity, water or banking services,” said one of them.
“There is no government in the city.”
He added that federal soldiers can only be seen in a limited area and that looting has become common in the absence of local police and security forces.
Meanwhile, government-affiliated media reported that the city is “returning to normal life.”
Image posted, ETV
The Ethiopian government’s ITV channel showed images of Mikkeli and said the situation was calm.
“People are moving, shops are open, we go to churches. As you can see, everything is very peaceful,” said a spokesman for Ethiopian TV (ATV).
Television broadcast images of people walking the streets.
There were also divergent views on the repercussions of the attack on the city.
Before federal forces entered, it was targeted for bombing last week, with some of its residents fleeing to the suburbs to escape the shelling.
‘Destroyed houses’
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared before Parliament in Addis Ababa last Monday and told parliamentarians that “the operation did not result in the death of a single civilian.”
However, the two people who spoke to the BBC said they saw civilians injured and killed in city hospitals after Saturday’s bombing.
One of them provided a photo of a house destroyed by a shell in a residential area called Ayder Idaga-Bigi, which also killed members of a family.
A person who spoke to the BBC says that this house was bombed, killing all members of the family.
Commenting on these reports, the Ethiopian Minister for Democratic Transition, Zadig Abraha, endorsed the prime minister’s position, telling the BBC: “We completely avoid civilian casualties on our part.”
Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that Mikkeli’s main hospital was facing a “severe shortage” of supplies, including mortgage bags, to care for people injured in the clashes in the city.
However, the Red Cross did not provide any number of casualties for injuries or deaths.
The BBC was also able to speak to a person in the western part of Tigray, who witnessed heavy fighting early last month.
Telecommunications service has partially returned in the region.
“We hide in the jungle”
The person we spoke to said that people still live in fear there, claiming that members of the local militia from the neighboring state of Amhara are killing, persecuting, threatening and displacing the Tigrayans.
“I tried to cross into Sudan, they detained us. We are in a difficult situation. It is as if we are in prison. Some people have nothing to eat and are hiding in the bush,” he added.
“We spend the day in the bush. There is no one to protect us. We leave our farms. We leave our livestock in the fields.”
For its part, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission reported last month that a massacre had occurred, which killed at least 600 people in the town of Mai Karda.
The Commission says that people of the Amhara ethnic group have been targeted by young Tigrayans supported by the local administration of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, in what was described as a war crime.
The TPLF also denied any involvement.
Sakana Mikeli, who spoke to the BBC, said the fighting continued near the city on Wednesday and Thursday.
And they spoke of the sounds of heavy artillery coming from the west and south.
However, the Democratic Transitional Minister said “there is no war”, adding that the TPLF “no longer has the military capacity to wage war” and that federal forces must now stop the leadership of the front.
The TPLF insists the fighting continues, saying it is defending its region from “invaders.”
