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Forces loyal to the ruling Tigray party have been fighting Ethiopian soldiers in the northern region for almost three weeks, sparking an exodus of refugees, civil atrocities and fears of further instability in the Horn of Africa.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, gave the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) 72 hours to surrender on Sunday, an ultimatum rejected by the leader of the dissident region, who says his people are “ready to die”. for our country.
As the deadline approaches, the UN Security Council was due to hold its first meeting in Tigray on Tuesday, despite disagreement between European and African members over whether the closed-door discussion should take place.
Ethiopia’s army says the tanks are 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the regional capital Mekele, where it has promised a “merciless” assault on TPLF forces.
“The highly aggressive rhetoric on both sides regarding the fight for Mekele is dangerously provocative and runs the risk of putting already vulnerable and frightened civilians in grave danger,” UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet said Tuesday.
Amnesty International urged no artillery and aerial bombardment in Mekele, calling on both sides to consider the half million inhabitants of the city and the many more who seek refuge there from the fighting in other parts of Tigray.
“Amnesty International reminds all parties that deliberately targeting civilians and civilian objects is prohibited under international humanitarian law and constitutes war crimes,” said Deprose Muchena, head of Amnesty International’s East and Southern Africa office.
“Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks are also prohibited.”
The government said Tuesday that “a large number of Tigray militias and special forces are surrendering” following the issuance of Abiy’s 72-hour ultimatum.
The TPLF, for its part, said Monday that it defeated an army battalion and claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region south of Tigray, whose local forces are fighting alongside the Ethiopian troops.
Tigray remains in a communications blackout and media access to the region has been restricted, making independent verification of claims from both sides difficult.
‘End this conflict’
Abiy has resisted growing calls for mediation since he ordered troops, tanks and warplanes from Tigray on November 4 in response to what he said were attacks on federal military camps orchestrated by the TPLF.
The African Union, based in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, has sent three former African presidents as special envoys to try to negotiate talks on the Tigray crisis.
A spokesman for an Ethiopian committee handling the conflict said on Monday that the government would meet with AU envoys “as a matter of respect,” but flatly ruled out negotiations with the TPLF.
A virtual meeting of the UN Security Council announced for Tuesday to discuss the crisis was briefly in doubt after African countries stopped organizing it. France, Britain, Belgium, Germany and Estonia, backed by the United States, later said they would go ahead as planned.
“They say ‘African solutions to African problems.’ It is something that we have to respect only to a certain extent, “a European diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“At a certain point, we have to put it on the agenda, even if Africans don’t like it,” he added, highlighting the impatience of Europeans over the lack of action by the Security Council in weeks of fighting.
The US National Security Council called for mediation on Monday and extended its support for the AU diplomatic effort “to end this tragic conflict now.”
Slaughter
The fighting has already brought more than 40,000 people to Sudan and forced many more to flee inside Tigray. Hundreds of people have reportedly died, although the true extent of the deaths and displacement is unknown.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, an independent but government-affiliated body, said Tuesday that at least 600 people were killed in a “riot” in the city of Mai-Kadra on November 9.
A local Tigrayan youth group aided by police and militia “killed hundreds of people, beating them with batons / sticks, stabbing them with knives, machetes and axes and strangling them with ropes,” the commission said in a report.
Meanwhile, Tigrayan refugees from Mai-Kadra, who have fled to Sudan, have blamed government forces for the killings there.
Long-standing tensions between Addis Ababa and the TPLF erupted in September when Tigray proceeded to regional elections in defiance of the federal government, which declared voting illegal.
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