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Ethiopian military sources said the federal army is strengthening its advance towards the city of Mekele, the capital of the Tigray region, while Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed gave regional forces 72 hours to surrender.
“We ask him to surrender within 72 hours … he is in the stage of no return,” Ahmed said Sunday night in a statement.
Earlier, a military spokesman said that the Ethiopian army plans to besiege the provincial capital with tanks, and may resort to artillery to bombard the city in an attempt to end a war that has been going on for about 3 weeks, and the spokesman urged civilians in the region to protect themselves.
This comes after the Ethiopian army advanced and took control of the cities surrounding the provincial capital, especially Idaga Homs, and Adi Qurat, which is of strategic importance, which is the second largest city in the region, with overlooking its capital, Mikeli, which has about 500,000 inhabitants, and the regional forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front are stationed there.
Thus, the army would have controlled 80% of the territory in northern Ethiopia. The war has claimed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives, and regional forces have also seen rocket fire into the neighboring Amhara region and across the border into Eritrea.
The front is digging trenches
For its part, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray said – Alta refuses to end its domination of the Achammala territory – that its troops are constantly digging trenches and targeting government forces.
A spokesman for the provincial government described the withdrawal of the forces from the front as a tactical withdrawal to save lives and draw federal forces into the decisive battle.
On the other hand, the European Union announced, through its Commission, that an amount of 4 million euros (4.7 million dollars) will provide emergency aid to Ethiopian refugees who fled to Sudan to escape the fighting in Tigray .
According to United Nations estimates, the flow rates of refugees fleeing the fighting in Ethiopia into Sudan are steadily increasing and, as of the end of last week, their number reached more than 31,000 spread over various camps along the borders.
The agencies of the international organization are preparing for the possibility of the arrival of 200 thousand refugees to Sudan during the next six months.
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