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After the Ethiopian army announced its intention to use tanks to surround the capital of the Tigray region, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed calls on the forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front to surrender, before the army begin an attack on the provincial capital.
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The President of Ethiopia with Abiy Ahmed during the tribute to the National Defense Forces in Addis Ababa (AFP)
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave the Tigrayans 72 hours to surrender before “the army begins an attack on Mekele, the provincial capital.”
Abi Ahmed said on Twitter tonight, Sunday: “We ask you to surrender peacefully within 72 hours … You are at the stage of no return.”
Dear Ethiopian colleagues, pic.twitter.com/3H9XXSiFM7
– Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) November 22, 2020
On Sunday, the Ethiopian army announced its intention to use tanks to surround the city of Mikkeli, the capital of the northern region of “Tigray”, warning civilians that “it can also use artillery shells in the city.”
“The next stages are the decisive part of the operation, which is to surround Mikeli with tanks, finish the battle in the mountainous areas and advance to the fields,” said military spokesman Colonel Degen Tsegay.
The Ethiopian government announced on Saturday that its forces “have strengthened control over the city of Adigrat”, as part of a military campaign that is being carried out in the opposition region of Tigray in the north of the country, and the cities of Aksum and Adwa in the region located on the borders with Eritrea and Sudan.
The Ethiopian prime minister announced last Tuesday that “the ongoing military operation in the dissident region of Tigray” will enter its “final” phase in the coming days.
In the midst of a conflict that has been going on for almost two weeks, the government’s emergency committee said: “The Ethiopian National Defense Forces have carried out very precise air operations outside of Mekele, the capital of the Tigray region.” .
The “Liberation Front, the people of Tigray” that controls this area in northern Ethiopia on Saturday launched several rockets at Asmara, the capital of neighboring Eritrea, accusing the authorities of militarily supporting the Ethiopian army in the Tigray region. .
This comes a day after the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” also launched missiles at two airfields in the neighboring Ethiopian region of Amhara.
On November 4, Abe Ahmed, the federal army sent to launch an attack against this northern region, after months of tension with local authorities over the “Liberation Front, the people of Tigray.”
The battles resulted in hundreds of deaths, according to Addis Ababa, and led to more than 25,000 people fleeing to neighboring Sudan.
Last Friday, the Ethiopian president claimed that “the forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front are dying,” and called on his soldiers to “rise up and desert in favor of the federal army in the next two or three days.”
He wrote on Facebook: “The three-day deadline for regional forces and the Tigrayans to join the federal army, rather than remain games in the hands of the greedy military council.”
He also welcomed the soldiers who used this deadline, without elaborating, saying: “Since the deadline has expired, final operations to maintain order will take place in the coming days.” The Federal Army confirms that it controls the west of the Tigray region, where the fighting was concentrated, as well as the town of Alamata in the southeast of the region.
But the president of the Tigray Region, Department Gbermichael, said last Tuesday that “the government and the people of Tigray will endure,” indicating that the battles will continue, explaining that “this military campaign cannot end. By force, “as he said.
Several international mediations have entered into a formulation process with the aim of ending the conflict.
Sanya Suri, an expert on East Africa with the Economic Information Unit, said that in addition to the “great” loss of life, this conflict “will lead to a wave of migration and internal displacement that may pose a threat to the stability of the region.” .
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has indicated that he expects large numbers of refugees to flee to neighboring Sudan, where 25,000 Ethiopians have so far arrived.
The United Nations said that “fighting between Ethiopian government forces and leaders in the north may spread and become difficult to control.”
The United Nations indicated that “war crimes may have been committed at a time when the fires of the conflict are flying into the troubled Horn of Africa.”
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