[ad_1]
Issued on:
The Ethiopian government rejected an African effort to mediate on Saturday, saying its troops had seized another city on their march to the rebel capital of the northern region of Tigray.
More than two weeks after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s offensive, the government says Tigrayan forces are demolishing roads and destroying bridges to halt the advance towards the regional capital, Mekelle, home to around half a million people.
The Tigrayans have promised “hell” for their advancing enemies. They denied destroying bridges, but could not be reached for comment on the plowing of roads.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, have died and more than 30,000 refugees have fled to Sudan since the conflict broke out on November 4. The fighting has spread beyond Tigray, whose forces have fired rockets at the neighboring Amhara region and the nation of Eritrea, raising concern. of a wider war and the split of multi-ethnic Ethiopia.
The Abiy government has said that it will soon reach Mekelle after taking over several surrounding towns. On Saturday it said that Adigrat, about 116 kilometers (72 miles) north of Mekelle, had also fallen.
Rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said nine civilians had been killed among the many casualties in the artillery hits in Adigrat.
The government could not immediately be reached for comment, but has previously denied repeatedly targeting civilians.
The claims of all parties are difficult to verify because telephone and Internet connections have been interrupted since the beginning of the conflict and the media are largely prohibited.
Eritrea denies accusations that the TPLF has sent troops to the border to support Abiy offensive against Tigrayan forces, which are also an old enemy of Eritrea.
African Envoys
On Friday, the African Union bloc named former presidents Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa as special envoys to seek a ceasefire and mediation talks.
Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for a peace pact with Eritrea, aims to capture the TPLF leaders before speaking.
“The news circulating that the envoys will travel to Ethiopia to mediate between the Federal Government and the criminal element of TPLF are false,” the government tweeted on Saturday.
Abiy accuses the Tigray leaders of rebelling against the central authority and attacking federal troops in the city of Dansha. The rebels say the Abiy government has marginalized and persecuted the Tigrayans since taking office two years ago.
Abiy denies this, saying he only seeks to restore law and order and preserve the unity of Ethiopia and its 115 million people.
On Saturday, the government released a video of a room full of Tigrayan soldiers at a meeting about the conflict. Soldiers listen to a speaker and take turns speaking to the camera.
Billene Seyoum, the spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office, said all the soldiers were active duty Tigrayan soldiers and that the meeting was part of a campaign to ensure that the military was not aligned with any political party or ethnic group.
In the video, a soldier says that the army has been like a family member of the Tigrayan people. Several condemn the attacks against the military; one says that “dividing the military along ethnic lines in that way is completely unacceptable.”
Tigray’s forces were not immediately available to comment on the video.
Humanitarian crisis
Aid workers say the conflict is creating a humanitarian crisis in Tigray, where many of the more than 5 million people were already displaced and dependent on food aid even before the conflict.
Satellite images from the US space company Maxar Technologies showed destroyed buildings lining the main road near Dansha airport, where the government says there was a surprise attack on November 4 against federal troops.
The TPLF is popular in its home region and dominated national politics from 1991 until Abiy took office. Abiy’s parents belong to the larger Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups.
“We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that stability prevails in the Tigray region and that our citizens are free from harm and want,” the prime minister tweeted on Saturday.
Across the border from Sudan, the United Nations is planning the possible arrival of 200,000 refugees.
“The situation is very serious,” said Jens Hesemann, emergency response coordinator of the UN agency for refugees UNHCR, from crossing Hamdayet, asking for urgent help from donors.
(REUTERS)
