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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Shelling, looting and skirmishes persisted in parts of Ethiopia’s Tigray on Saturday, a rebel force in the northern region said after government troops declared they were within days of capturing the group’s leaders.
A month of fighting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal army and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is believed to have killed thousands and drove some 46,000 refugees to neighboring Sudan.
The Abiy government has said the conflict is calming down a week after it seized the regional capital of Tigray, Mekelle, but TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message on Saturday that there was still clashes outside the city.
He said federal forces bombed the town of Abbi Adi on Friday, without giving further details, while a TPLF spokesman accused government troops of looting Mekelle.
“(They are) looting civilian properties, hotels and damaging factories after the looting,” spokesman Getachew Reda told a TPLF-owned television channel.
The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Most communications in Tigray are down and access to the area is severely restricted, making it difficult to verify the statements of either party.
Abiy used to be a political partner of the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition for nearly three decades, but upset his former allies by prosecuting Tigray officials for corruption and rights abuses.
They said the arrests were politically motivated, accusing Abiy of trying to strengthen his grip on Ethiopia’s 10 semi-autonomous federal states. Abiy denies this and has described the TPLF leaders who rioted against the federal authority as criminals.
‘HIDING IN CAVES’
Army Colonel Shambel Beyene said late Friday that government forces were 10 kilometers (six miles) from a forest in the Gore area where Debretsion, Getachew and other members of the TPLF were thought to be hiding.
“We will only need a few days to reach them,” he said on state television.
Aid agencies, meanwhile, are concerned about the lack of food, fuel, medicine and even body bags in Tigray. Convoys are waiting for help.
Residents of the central city of Shire told a new government-appointed interim administration that the cost of groceries was skyrocketing and fuel shortages were causing ambulances used to take patients to hospitals to go to Earth.
“Residents still stay away from their homes. Women are hiding in caves with their children, ”said a man in a meeting broadcast by EBC on Friday night.
Others complained of looting in the city.
The Abiy government has said it will protect civilians in the northern region and ensure their needs are met.
“The work to rebuild Tigray has started with the crews … carrying out repair work (and) restoration of services,” he said in a tweet on Saturday.
Abiy, who took office in 2018, won a Nobel Peace Prize the following year for making peace with neighboring Eritrea and democratic reforms.
He began to open up a closed economy, loosen a repressive political system, and take action against those accused of corruption and rights abuses, some of whom were Tigray officials.
His government has also jailed thousands of opponents after violent riots, angering rivals.
Report from the Addis Ababa newsroom; Additional information from Nazanine Moshiri in Nairobi; Written by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Tim Cocks and Helen Popper
