Nairobi, Kenya (AP) – Prime Minister Abiya Ahmed said troops had been ordered to move forward for the “final phase” of the offensive after people continued to flee the capital of Ethiopia’s mountainous Tigris region for fear of an imminent attack. To arrest notorious regional leaders.
Reports of fighting went well outside McKelley, a densely populated city of five million people, who warned the Ethiopian government of “no mercy” if it did not disassociate itself from Tigre leaders in time. Abi on Thursday told residents to stay indoors and disarm as troops, along with tanks, were ordered to go inside. His government is committed to protecting its citizens.
Food and other supplies are running out in the Tigris region of 6 million people. The United Nations calls for immediate access to humanitarian physicians who are neutral and impartial. The Ethiopian government has said no “humanitarian access route” will be opened under the country’s peace ministry, without elaborating.
Many crises are on the rise. Eritrean refugees are on fire as they fight through their nearly 100,000 camps in Uttar Pradesh.
Refugees have also told the Associated Press that the Ethiopian army near the Sudanese border is preventing people from leaving Ethiopia, while the refugee crossing has become increasingly mobile. The Ethiopian government has not commented.
More than 40,000 refugees have arrived in a remote part of Sudan where local communities and humanitarian workers struggle to provide food, shelter and care. About half of the refugees are children. The spread of COVID-19 is just one concern.
“We cannot keep a social distance in the camps here,” said Mohammed Rafiq Nasri of the UN refugee agency. “It is really challenging in many questions of growing need as the number is increasing. Today we are getting a caravan of 1000 arriving at the camp. And shelter is one of the biggest challenges we have at the moment. “
Frightened, sometimes without leaving the words of loved ones, the refugees continue to share horrific accounts of the fight and plead to stop it.
“It simply came to our notice then. There is no peace in the country. You see one tribe killing another. It is very difficult, ”said AK, Atsabaha Gatsadik.
It is difficult to verify claims of fighting between Ethiopian forces and the Tigre People’s Liberation Front’s heavily armed forces since November 4, after communications and transport links broke down, which was once dominated by the Ethiopian government, but ruled by Abi. Both governments now consider each other illegal.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have been killed. The fight threatens to destabilize Ethiopia, which has been described as the lynchpin of Africa’s strategic horn, and could destabilize its neighbors.
Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate Abi has rejected international “interference”. His government has said three high-level African Union envoys to the conflict may meet with them, but not with Tigre leaders.
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Faye Abulegasim contributed to the Umm Rakouba in Sudan.
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