[ad_1]
Ethiopia’s army took control of the rebel region’s capital of Tigray on Saturday, ending the “final phase” of a month-long armed conflict, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.
Since November 3, the national government has been involved in a military offensive against the northern region, which is led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF.
Abiy said that the armed forces have seized the capital, Mekelle, and that the rebel “criminals” will be arrested and tried.
“I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased military operations in the Tigray region,” Abiy said.
“Our focus now will be on rebuilding the region and providing humanitarian assistance while the federal police detain the TPLF clique.”
Information from the front lines has been tightly controlled after the government cut off most telecommunications services, and both sides engaged in a war of words. Foreign diplomats in Addis Ababa believe hundreds, probably thousands, have died since the conflict began when the TPLF said it attacked a federal army command station in Mekelle.
Abiy did not say whether there were casualties in the military takeover of the capital. Human rights groups have expressed concern that an assault on a city of some 500,000 people could cause large numbers of civilian casualties. Amid growing calls for a ceasefire and concern for civilians in the international community, Mr. Abiy met with emissaries from the African Union on Friday and agreed to open a “humanitarian assistance corridor”.
British Foreign Secretary, Dominic raab it said on Saturday it was “very concerned about reports of fighting in Mekelle” and of rocket attacks in neighboring Eritrea, whose government is close to Mr. Abiy and an enemy of the TPLF. The US embassy in Eritrea said Friday night that “a loud noise, possibly an explosion” was heard in the capital, Asmara.
More than 40,000 Ethiopian refugees have already crossed the border into neighboring Sudan, and the United Nations fears that the number will double in the coming months if the fighting continues. Senior Sudanese officials said their state is ill-equipped to cope with such an influx of people.
The Ethiopian government calls for military action against the TPLF, which runs Tigray and dominated national politics until 2018, a police operation. The TPLF has been accused of massacring hundreds of civilians, although it has denied fomenting ethnic violence.
“What the TPLF clique did is not just a nuisance. It is a betrayal, ”said Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the State of Emergency Task Force for the Tigray Crisis.
He accused the group of firing rockets and killing nearly 700 non-Tigrayan civilians.
Even with the army taking over the city of Mekelle, Western officials in Addis Ababa and observers from Tigrayan warned that the national government could have a difficult time regaining full control of the region, which is home to 5 million of the 110 million inhabitants of the country. “This only marks the beginning of another long insurgency in Tigray against Ethiopia, which will not be fought for regional autonomy, but for complete independence,” he tweeted. Alemayehu Weldemariam, analyst on security and democracy in the Horn of Africa.
The TPLF led a successful guerrilla war against the Marxist Derg regime and then dominated the country’s politics for 27 years after marching on the capital in 1991. Its fighters are believed to be battle-hardened and well-armed, analysts say. , posing the risk of a prolonged guerrilla conflict in the mountainous region, even if their leadership is captured or assassinated. TPLF leaders have said they were “ready to die” to defend their region.
[ad_2]
