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Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) leader Debretsion Gebremichael has reportedly said his people are “ready to die” as Ethiopian forces position themselves to assault the region’s capital, Mekelle.
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Ethiopian Prime Minister, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Abiy Ahmed, issued a 72-hour deadline to surrender or leave the city on Sunday, the TPLF leader responded with a challenge: “He doesn’t understand who we are. We are people of principle and willing to die in defense of our right to manage our region ”.
Prime Minister Abiy first launched his campaign against Tigray on November 4 after claiming that the TPLF had attacked two military bases that housed Ethiopian troops in the region.
In reality, the outside world sees the Abiy campaign more as a response to Tigrayan’s efforts for self-government after elections in the region to elect local officials.
On Sunday, the prime minister described the TPLF as “at a point of no return.”
At the time of writing, the Ethiopian army is said to be within range of the bombing of the city and has threatened a bombardment.
Mekelle’s population estimates range from 300,000 to half a million, although large numbers of Tigrayans are already known to have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan.
Earlier today, a TPLF spokesperson who spoke to the outside world using WhatsApp claimed that they had “completely destroyed” the 21st Mechanized Division of the Ethiopian army, although an independent, or even Ethiopian, verification has not been possible.
With the clock ticking, the world can only wait and see if Ethiopia’s civil and military leaders will carry out their promised campaign of “merciless” once they reach the city, or if the man praised as a worthy Nobel Prize winner. Peace Prize Just a year ago, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, after all, was unworthy of the award.
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