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Rebel forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region claimed they shot down a military plane and retaken a city from federal forces on Sunday, a day after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory in the northern region.
Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told Reuters news agency in a text message that his forces also captured the pilot of the military plane.
There were no immediate comments from the government or military, while claims from all parties are difficult to verify as telephone and internet links to the northern Tigray region have been down and access is strictly controlled since the start of the conflict on November 4.
The Ethiopian government has been trying to quell a rebellion by the TPLF, a powerful ethnic-based party that dominated the central government for almost three decades until Abiy came to power in 2018. Thousands of people are believed to have died since the fighting began. . more than 43,000 have fled to neighboring Sudan and there are reports of militias attacking civilians.
The conflict has been a difficult test for Abiy, a leader who has vowed to unite the myriad ethnic groups that make up Ethiopia’s 115 million population, but who has faced repeated bouts of violence across the country. The influx of refugees and TPLF rocket attacks in neighboring Eritrea also threaten to destabilize the broader Horn of Africa region.
Abiy, who has rejected international offers to mediate, said late Saturday that federal troops had taken control of Mekelle, the capital of Tigrayan, allaying fears of prolonged fighting in the city of 500,000 people. He said the federal police would try to arrest the TPLF “criminals” and take them to court.
The police then issued arrest warrants for 17 military officers accused of treason and embezzlement of public property, reported Fana TV, a state affiliate. Arrest warrants already exist for 117 other senior officers with suspected ties to the TPLF.
Specter of armed warfare
It was unclear if any TPLF leaders had surrendered or been arrested since Saturday. His whereabouts were also unknown. Even as the TPLF withdrew from Mekelle, Debretsion, the group’s president, told Reuters that his forces would continue to fight, a statement that raised the specter of a protracted armed war. In text messages on Sunday, he said the TPLF had also retaken the city of Axum.
Also Sunday, Ethiopian state television said 70 graves, some with individual bodies and others with multiple bodies, were found in the town of Humera in Tigray, citing witnesses who claimed the victims were killed by pro-TPLF fighters.
The report could not be independently verified.
Human rights researchers and civilians fleeing the conflict say that fighters on both sides, including civilian militias that support the more formal security forces, have carried out mass killings. Both the government and the TPLF deny that their forces were involved.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Mekelle was silent on Sunday. But it said in a statement that hospitals were running out of supplies, such as gloves, to care for the wounded, and that one hospital lacked body bags for the dead.
At the Ayder Reference Hospital, one of the largest in the city, the ICRC said it “found that approximately 80 per cent of the patients suffered trauma,” without specifying how the injuries were sustained.
“The influx of wounded forced the hospital to suspend many other medical services so that limited staff and resources could be dedicated to emergency medical care,” the ICRC added.
Attacks on Asmara
Diplomats and regional experts have also said that a quick military victory in Mekelle may not mark the end of the conflict.
On Saturday, hours after Abiy announced that Mekelle had fallen into the hands of federal forces, rockets were fired from Tigray at Asmara, the capital of neighboring Eritrea, two diplomats told the AFP news agency.
The rockets appeared to be aimed at the Asmara airport and military installations, although it was unclear where they landed and what damage they may have caused. The US embassy in Asmara reported that “six explosions” had occurred in the city “around 10:13 pm” (19:13 GMT) on Saturday.
The TPLF accused Eritrea of sending troops to Tigray in support of the Ethiopian government and said it fired rockets at Asmara on November 14.
The TPLF has a history of armed resistance. The mountainous terrain of Tigray and the borders with Sudan and Eritrea assisted the group during its long fight against the Marxist strongman Mengistu Haile Mariam, whom it finally overthrew in 1991.
The TPLF and Eritrean forces fought together against Mengistu, and Eritrea secured its independence from Ethiopia with his departure. But relations soured soon after. The two nations went to war over a border dispute in 1998-2000.
Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for making peace with Eritrea, but the TPLF continues to regard the country as a mortal enemy.
The Abiy government launched the offensive in Tigray after what it described as an attack by local forces on federal troops stationed there.
The TPLF accuses Abiy of wanting to consolidate control at the expense of Ethiopia’s 10 regions, which wield broad powers over matters such as taxes and security. Abiy denies it.
Tensions rose after Tigray held a regional election in September in defiance of the federal government, which had postponed voting across the country in August due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government called Tigray’s vote illegal.
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