“We are not worried about time, we are worried about our ultimate complete success,” Tigre Region President Debretsian Gabra Michael said on Tigre TV on Monday night.
On Sunday, the Ethiopian prime minister warned members of the region’s ruling party, the Tigre People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), to surrender within the next 728 hours, “recognizing that you are not coming back.”
But TPLF spokesman Getachu Redda claimed that his army was waging a “strong fight” on the front lines and suggested that the TPLF should withdraw if McKelley’s regional capital was captured by federal forces. Falling cities will change the strategy of recapture. “We will never let him be safe for even a minute,” Reder said on Tigre TV on Monday.
On Tuesday, Getachu told Tigre TV that a reputable Ethiopian military unit – which he called the 21st Mechanized Division – had been “completely destroyed” under the leadership of the former commander of the unit, Rai-Wahirat, who had defected the tactic. TPLF Side, Reuters reports.
A spokesman for the prime minister, Billionaire Siom, told Reuters that this was not true.
CNN could not verify the statements made by both due to the blackout of regional communications.
Government forces say they are closing in on McCall before the “final phase” of military action currently promised, following a stern warning to surrender to the Tigerian army.
The federal military said the third and final phase of the military operation included a plan to encircle the regional capital, Macaulay, with tanks, warning civilians to beware of artillery.
The conflict threatens to undo years of progress in Africa’s second-most populous country and Africa’s resistant horn region.
The conflict has spread to Eritrea, where TPLFA has fired rockets, and has also affected Somalia, where Ethiopia has disarmed hundreds of Tigris in a peacekeeping force fighting al Qaeda-linked terrorists.
The President of South Africa and President of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa, met with the President of Ethiopia, Sahel-Work Zevde, on Friday.
The European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have called for de-escalation since the conflict began.
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