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ADDIS ABABA, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Ethiopia is offering a 10 million birr ($ 260,000) reward to anyone with information on the location of fugitive leaders of the rebel force in the northern Tigray region, the government said on Friday. .
The reward for helping to capture the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was announced on state broadcaster EBC and later tweeted by the government task force on the Tigray crisis.
Leaders of the TPLF, believed to be hiding in the mountains since federal forces captured the region’s capital on November 28, have said they are fighting back. Reuters has been unable to reach them for comment for more than a week.
Thousands of people are believed to have died and nearly a million fled their homes during airstrikes and ground battles in Tigray last month.
The conflict has raised concerns among Ethiopia’s international allies about the possible destabilization of Africa’s second most populous nation.
The European Union has postponed nearly € 90 million in budget support payments to Ethiopia due to the bloc’s concerns over the crisis, according to an internal EU document seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
Ethiopia, home to the African Union headquarters, is a diplomatic heavyweight in a volatile region and its troops are valued for their service in peacekeeping missions in Somalia and South Sudan.
Federal troops took Mekelle, the capital of Tigray, on November 28 and now control the major cities in the region. Some electrical and phone connections were restored earlier this week in Mekelle after a virtual communications blackout since the federal offensive began on November 4.
Communication difficulties have made it difficult to verify accounts from all sides. ($ 1 = 38.6742 birr)
(Addis Ababa newsroom report Written by Maggie Fick Edited by Peter Graff)
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