– After that, there will be no mercy – VG

The prime minister said Sunday night that Ethiopia will launch an offensive against the capital of the Tigray region, Mekele, if the forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, TPLF, do not surrender within 72 hours.

“We ask that you peacefully surrender within 72 hours, and recognize that there is no turning back,” he said in a Twitter message reproduced by Al Jazeera.

Ethiopian federal authorities launched a military operation on November 4 against a TPLF uprising in the north of the country. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee to neighboring Sudan and hundreds have died, writes Reuters.

The TPLF, which governs the region in the northeast of the country, has yet to rule on the prime minister’s ultimatum.

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– It can be considered a kind of collective punishment

Earlier Sunday, the Ethiopian army also warned that it would surround Mekele with tanks before attacking the city, which has a population of around half a million.

– We will send a message to our residents in Mekele to save themselves from artillery attacks and free them from the junta. After that, there will be no mercy, military spokesman Dejene Tsegaye told Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation.

According to the AP news agency, he accuses the leaders of the rebel group of hiding among the common people of the city.

Laetitia Bader, area manager for the Horn of Africa at Human Rights Watch, is very concerned by the statements.

– Ethiopian army spokesman threatens residents of the capital of Tigray with artillery fire if they don’t “save” first. Treating an entire city as a military target would not only be illegal, but could also be considered a form of collective punishment. her on Twitter.

Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations and Susan Rice, National Security Advisor comment out the statements as follows: “In other words, war crimes.”

Denies attacks on civilians

The statements about Mekele come a day after the Ethiopian defense regained power in Adigrat, Tigray’s second-largest city, NTB writes. According to Al Jazeera, they report that on Sunday they seized control of the town of Idaga Hamus, which is located on the road from Adigrat to Mekelle.

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael, for his part, told the Reuters news agency that authorities’ forces will not be able to surround Mekele.

– It’s their plan, but they won’t make it. They will not be able to move an inch in more than a week, he says of the forces at the front in the south.

Both Reuters and the AP write that it is very difficult to confirm the allegations from both sides, in part because both phone and Internet coverage in the area are down.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Peace Prize in 2019:

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia, Catherine Sozi, told Reuters she hopes the safety of humanitarian workers and civilians will be protected.

It also calls for infrastructure such as schools, health care and access to water to be protected.

Ethiopian authorities have denied attacking civilians, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reiterated on Sunday that they are taking all “necessary measures to ensure that civilians are not injured.” He also accuses the rebel group TPLF of using civilians as living shields, writes AP.

However, according to the Red Cross, several hundred civilians were injured in the conflict and medical personnel have been attacked. They believe that there is a danger that the situation will turn into a humanitarian crisis.

The UN has also reported a humanitarian crisis, after international organizations estimated that around 2 million people in the region are in dire need of food and medicine.

– Violence in Ethiopia’s Tigray region leads to a large-scale humanitarian crisis, with thousands of people fleeing to Sudan in search of safety, they write on Twitter.