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Fighting breaks out in various areas outside the city of Tigrayan Mekelle, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed once again dismisses dialogue with the leaders of the defiant region.
Armed men guard sacks of food delivered to Ethiopian refugees fleeing the ongoing fighting in the Tigray region of Kassala state, Sudan, November 24, 2020. (Reuters)
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has once again ruled out dialogue with the leaders of the challenging Tigray region, but said he is willing to speak with representatives who “operate legally” there during a meeting with three special envoys from the African Union. trying to end the deadly conflict between federal troops. and the forces of the region.
The meeting took place on Friday as people fled the capital of Tigray fearing an imminent assault after Abiy said the army had been ordered to enter the “final phase” of an offensive to arrest the leaders of the Front of Tigray People’s Liberation (TPLF). who run the region.
The Abiy and regional governments consider each other illegitimate.
There was no immediate news from the three AU envoys, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.
AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo did not say whether the envoys can meet with TPLF leaders, something Abiy’s office has rejected.
The prime minister appreciated the “greatest concern” of the AU envoys and told them that his government’s failure to enforce the rule of law in Tigray “would fuel a culture of impunity at a devastating cost to the country’s survival.” said his office.
Abiy had given the TPLF until Wednesday to lay down its arms or face an assault on Mekelle, the regional capital of 500,000 people.
The United Nations says 200 humanitarian workers are also in the city.
Fighting the rages outside of Mekelle
The Reuters news agency was unable to reach the TPLF for comment on Friday morning, but two diplomats said fighting broke out in several areas outside of Mekelle.
A Mekelle resident said the city itself was quiet Thursday night.
With telephone and Internet connections closed to the region and access to the area strictly controlled, verifying the claims of all parties has been impossible.
There was no indication that the Ethiopian army had entered the city of Mekelle. The TPLF has previously said it was digging trenches around the city. Reuters was unable to verify those claims.
Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said on Thursday that the government was trying to make the people of the city aware of the military operation.
“We have informed the people of Mekelle of the operation by deploying military helicopters and dropping leaflets in Tigrinya and also in Amharic to protect themselves against this,” he said. France24.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said such efforts were not similar to protecting civilians from harm.
“The warnings do not absolve the Ethiopian military of the duty to protect civilians during military operations in urban areas,” Roth tweeted on Thursday.
Urging the TPLF not to deploy its forces among the civilian population in Mekelle, he added: “Violations on one side do not justify violations on the other.”
Mediation efforts of the UA
The African Union envoys were in Addis Ababa “with a view to helping mediate between the parties to the conflict” in Ethiopia, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the president of the AU, said earlier this week.
Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for ending a two-decade standoff with Eritrea, has said he will not speak to TPLF leaders until they are defeated or surrender.
Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in airstrikes and ground fighting since the war began on November 4. The United Nations estimates that 1.1 million Ethiopians will need aid as a result of the conflict.
The conflict has caused shock waves in the Horn of Africa.
More than 43,000 refugees have fled to Sudan. The TPLF rockets have reached the capital of neighboring Eritrea.
Ethiopians keep on fleeing
Meanwhile, people continued to flee on Friday for fear of an imminent assault.
The fighting was reportedly held outside Mekele, whose residents had been warned by the Ethiopian government to “show no mercy” if they did not part ways with Tigray leaders in time.
Abiy told residents Thursday to stay inside and disarm while the army, with tanks, was ordered to enter.
His government has promised to protect civilians.
Multiple crises grow.
Eritrean refugees have been in the line of fire as fighting ravages their camps of nearly 100,000 in the north of the region.
Refugees have also told The Associated Press that Ethiopian forces near the Sudan border are preventing people from leaving Ethiopia, while refugee crossings have largely been reduced to a trickle.
The Ethiopian government has not commented on the matter.
Fears of Covid-19
Thousands of people have crossed into a remote part of Sudan where local communities and humanitarian workers struggle to provide food, shelter and care.
Almost half of the refugees are children. The spread of Covid-19 is just one of the concerns.
“We cannot maintain social distancing here in the camp,” said Mohammed Rafik Nasri of the UN refugee agency.
“It is really a challenge among the various problems that are needed that are growing because the number is growing. Today we are receiving a convoy of 1,000 arriving at the camp. And the shelter is one of the biggest challenges that we have at the moment.”
Scared, sometimes without a word from loved ones left behind, the refugees continue to share horrifying tales of the fighting and beg for it to stop.
“It saddens me very much. The country has no peace. You see one tribe killing another. It is very difficult,” said one, Atsbaha Gtsadik.
Region locked for support groups
Abiy’s office said on Thursday that authorities were opening a humanitarian access route, but the UN said it had no information on the route and that the region was blocked from aid groups.
The Tigrayans, who make up about six percent of Ethiopia’s 115 million people, dominated the government until Abiy took power two years ago.
Abiy promised to unite Ethiopians and introduce freedoms after years of state repression that filled prisons with tens of thousands of political prisoners.
His government also prosecuted senior Tigray officials for crimes such as corruption, torture and murder. The region viewed those trials as discrimination.
Abiy accuses the Tigray leaders of starting the war by attacking federal troops at a base in Tigray three weeks ago. The TPLF has described the attack as a preemptive strike.
The Tigrayan forces have large reserves of military equipment and number up to 250,000 men, experts say, while the region has a history of guerrilla resistance.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
