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Ethiopia on Friday offered a reward in exchange for information that could help locate the leaders of the ruling party in the Tigray region, who have been the target of a major military offensive.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, announced the military campaign against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on November 4, saying it came in response to attacks orchestrated by the TPLF in federal army camps.
Abiy declared victory after federal forces seized the regional capital, Mekele, in late November, but the UN says clashes persist in the region and TPLF leaders continue to flee.
The army will pay 10 million Ethiopian birr (approximately 250,000 dollars / 205,000 euros) to “anyone who knows the exact location of the leadership of the TPLF board,” the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Lieutenant General Asrat Denero, head of the information department. community army, as saying Friday.
Asrat also provided a hotline where citizens could give advice.
Two days after the fall of Mekele, Abiy told lawmakers that federal forces were closely monitoring the TPLF leaders from “the situation room” and would arrest them soon.
He said TPLF leaders had fled to the west of the city, although Debretsion Gebremichael, president of Tigray when the conflict began, told AFP at the time that Abiy had the wrong location.
Debretsion and other TPLF leaders have been unapproachable for nearly two weeks.
On November 13, federal police announced arrest warrants for Debretsion and 63 other TPLF leaders.
It was not immediately clear on Friday if the reward offer applies to all of them.
The clashes in Tigray have killed thousands, according to think tank International Crisis Group (ICG), and have sent tens of thousands of refugees across the border into Sudan.
The UN has been pushing, so far without success, for unrestricted access to the region to provide humanitarian assistance.
On Thursday it announced a $ 35.6 million emergency aid package for civilians caught up in the conflict.
