Rebels Threaten To Fight As Ethiopia Declares Victory

The military of Ethiopia has seized full control of the capital of the defiant region of Tigray, the army declared Saturday, and the Prime Minister said that the capture of Mekele marked the completion of an attack that began almost four weeks ago. 

In the final drive to arrest its leaders, the regional government said the town of half a million people was heavily bombarded. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia congratulated his troops on Monday for their victory over rebels in Tigray's northern province. 

But analysts warned that announcing an end to the conflict could be premature, as rebel leaders vowed to fight on.

The Tigray Conflict

 

The Tigray conflict is an armed conflict that began between two sides in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in November 2020: the Tigray Regional Government led by the Tigray People's Liberation Front and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's support forces, with the latter also receiving support from Eritrean Forces President Isaias Afwerki.

 

A general named Abiy was prevented from taking on his military post by the Tigrayan government as tension continued to rise. Ethiopia's federal parliament had proposed designating the TPLF as a terrorist group the day before the TPLF's 4 November Northern Command attacks.

 

The TPLF has been accused by Abiy's government of inciting violence and attempting to regain power, and each government now considers the other as illegal. The prime minister declined dialogue with the representatives of the TPLF, including during a meeting with three special envoys from the African Union on Friday.

The Prime Ministers View on the win

 

On Monday, Abiy told the Ethiopian parliament that the capture of Mekelle marked the victorious end of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) military campaign, the ruling party of the region, only weeks after the offensive was launched in response to a TPLF assault on a federal military base.

 

Abiy said, praising the national army as "disciplined and victorious," "Our constitution was attacked, but it did not take us three years, it took us three weeks."  In a declaration, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said, "We have entered Mekele without the targets being innocent civilians." 

 

Now, he said, the police will target the leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which run the region and controlled the governing coalition of Ethiopia until Abiy came to power in 2018, and sidelined them in the sweeping reforms that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

UN’s Concerns

 

The United Nations is trying to get a team on the ground to investigate suspected violations of human rights, including a mass killing in Tigray in Ethiopia, identified by the UN rights chief as one of many "horrific" fits of abuse of human rights that could lead to war crimes.

 

For more than six weeks, the Ethiopian army has been battling rebellious forces in the northern Tigray region in a war that has displaced close to 950,000 civilians.

Until now, among the tens of thousands who have fled to neighbouring Sudan, the UN has been tracking the situation remotely and has received some of its information from refugees. Both sides deny that their troops have committed massacres, and blame the killing of civilians on other forces.

 

War Forces Ethiopians Into Sudan

 

Tens of thousands of Ethiopians who were contemplating the harvest season just weeks ago are now huddling in Sudan's refugee camps. As months of tensions between Ethiopia's government and that of its rebellious Tigray region exploded into deadly combat, they fled from fields and homes and hospital rooms. 

Before they can fill up their buckets, some crowd around a tap for hours. Children as young as seven struggle to carry on their backs the heavy jugs. The Tigray area remains largely cut off from the planet, but still, a tiny TV screen is surrounded by many of the refugees in hopes of knowing what could happen back home.

 

It is estimated that the war between Ethiopian federal forces and the TPLF has killed thousands and displaced over 950,000 people. Residents reported shortages of food, water, and fuel in the town earlier this month. 

 

Help agencies have struggled to gain entry to the area to assess the extent of the emergency, but are worried about food running out, especially in camps in neighbouring Eritrea hosting refugees fleeing repression.

 

Written by - Nandita Singh

 

Edited by - Christeena George