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Ethiopia’s prime minister is dismissing the growing international consensus for dialogue and the cessation of deadly fighting in the Tigray region as “interference”, saying his country will handle the conflict on its own.
“We respectfully urge the international community to refrain from any unwanted and illegal acts of interference,” a statement from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said on Wednesday, as quoted by the Associated Press (AP), as government forces surrounded the capital of Tigray, Mekele. with tanks. “The international community must wait until the Ethiopian government presents its requests for assistance to the community of nations.”
Abiy, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize last year, insists on calling the conflict a “law enforcement operation,” while his ultimatum for the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to surrender ends sooner. one final push to arrest them.
The Abiy government has warned half a million Mekele residents to stay away from TPLF leaders or there will be “no mercy,” language the United Nations human rights chief and others have warned could lead to “more violations of the TPLF. International human right”.
Communications remain almost completely cut off with the Tigray region of some 6 million people. It is unclear how many people in Mekele are aware of the warnings and threat of artillery fire.
A news agency in Ethiopia’s Amhara region said on Wednesday that more than 10,000 Tigrayan soldiers had been “destroyed” during a three-week conflict raging in the mountainous north.
The report from the regional government-run AMMA agency in Amhara, where authorities back Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal forces, could not be verified and there was no immediate response from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), according to Reuters.
The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s government for more than a quarter century, but was marginalized after Abiy took office in 2018 and sought to centralize power in a country long ruled by ethnic lines. The TPLF chose not to participate when Abiy dissolved the ruling coalition, then angered the federal government by holding an election in September after the national elections were postponed by COVID-19. Each side now considers the other as illegal.
The international community has urgently called for communications to be restored with the Tigray region so that claims from parties to the conflict can be investigated and so desperately needed food and other supplies can be shipped as hunger increases.
The UN says it has been unable to deliver supplies to Tigray since the fighting began on November 4, when Abiy accused the TPLF of attacking a military base. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have died in three weeks of fighting. More than 40,000 refugees have fled to Sudan. And nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees in camps in north Tigray have approached the firing line.
