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International pressure increased on Tuesday on Ethiopia’s warring parties to stop fighting and protect civilians in Tigray, where the army says it has surrounded the capital ahead of a bombing threat.
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, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, 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 said his town is “ready to die.” “for his country.
As the deadline approaches, the UN Security Council held its first meeting on the crisis, despite disagreement between European and African members on 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,” said UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet.
Amnesty International urged Ethiopia not to use artillery and aerial bombardment in Mekele, and called on both sides to consider the half million inhabitants of the city and the many more seeking refuge there from fighting elsewhere.
“Deliberately targeting civilians and civilian objects is prohibited under international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s head of the East and Southern Africa office.
The government said on Tuesday that “a large number of Tigray militias and special forces” had surrendered after Abiy’s 72-hour ultimatum.
The TPLF, for its part, said on Monday it had defeated an army battalion and claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region south of Tigray, where local forces are fighting alongside to 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 (AU), 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 Monday that the government would meet with the envoys “as a matter of respect,” but flatly ruled out negotiations with the TPLF.
Tuesday’s virtual meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the crisis was briefly in doubt after African countries withdrew.
But diplomats from France, Britain, Belgium, Germany and Estonia eventually forced the talks to go ahead, backed by the United States.
“At a certain point, we have to put it on the agenda, even if the Africans don’t like it,” a European diplomat who asked to remain anonymous told AFP, highlighting the growing impatience over the Security Council’s inaction. during the weeks. -Long fight.
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.”
‘Rampage’
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 had been massacred 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.
Tigrayan refugees from Mai-Kadra, who have fled to Sudan, have blamed government forces for the killings.
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.
(AFP)
