US News Tigray War: According to the government, the Ethiopian army "took full control" of Mekele

Ethiopia: Tigray fires rockets again in neighboring Amhara region

© Provided by Le Point Rockets fired by the Tigray forces, which confront the Ethiopian federal army, again targeted the neighboring region of Amhara. hours after the central government claimed its troops were closing in on Mekele, the capital of the dissident region.

Ethiopian troops are now in “ full control ” of Mekelle, the capital of the northern region of Tigray , the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said on Saturday evening. “With full command of the regional capital, this marks the completion of the Ethiopian National Forces ’ last phase … The main operation is

Flags representing the Tigray region of Ethiopia lining a wall in the Tigrayan city of Mekele . The region has experienced rising tensions with the federal Tigray , the northernmost region of Ethiopia , is home to the Tigrayan people who make up an estimated 6 percent of the country’s population of more than

© EDUARDO SOTERAS A member of the Tigray police at a checkpoint near Mekele on September 9th. Abiy Ahmed claims that federal troops have captured the capital of the rebel region. He launched a military operation against the local authorities on November 4.

What happened in Mekele? Once again, the blackout imposed on the Tigray region - all communications have been cut, journalists banned from entering - calls for caution. As since the start of the war, unleashed on November 4, is the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who imposes his account of events. On Saturday, he announced in a statement posted on Twitter that "the federal government [had] now taken full control of the city of Mekele", the capital of Tigray, marking the completion of the "final phase" of the operation. military against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

Ethiopia does not want AU mediation in the Tigray conflict

In the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray, the central government continues to rely on its armed forces and violence. Diplomatic negotiations should not take place until the TPLF leadership is arrested. © Ethiopian News Agency / AP / picture alliance The photo released by the government is said to show the Ethiopian military advancing into Tigray Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed - 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate - has turned down an offer to mediate by the African Union (AU).

The Ethiopian military has begun an offensive in Tigray 's capital city of Mekelle, according to Ethiopia ’s government had warned Mekele residents there would be “no mercy” if they didn’t move away Abiy’s government has said it will take care to avoid harming civilians in the tank-led assault.

The Ethiopian army announced Saturday that it had taken full control of Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region. Zadig Abraha, Abiy’s minister in charge of democratization, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the Ethiopian government didn't yet know the number of people killed in

The armed party, which controls the region with an iron fist, has been openly opposed to the central government in Addis Ababa since this summer's parliamentary elections were postponed, resulting in a lengthening of the terms of MPs - and the Prime Minister. minister - deemed unconstitutional by the TPLF. Between Abiy Ahmed, who chipped away at the prerogatives of a once all-powerful party in Ethiopia, and regional authorities in Mekele, who held their own elections in September, the fire had actually been smoldering for years. On both sides, war was brewing.

Video: Conflict in Ethiopia: at least 600 civilians killed on November 9 in Tigray (France 24)

Is this already over, as the Prime Minister claims? Such a scenario is highly unlikely . During the night from Saturday to Sunday, several rockets fell on Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, neighboring Tigray and considered an ally of Addis Ababa . Even if the federal troops have indeed entered Mekele and seized strategic sites, which remains to be confirmed, the TPLF, with tens of thousands of seasoned and equipped combatants, could fall into a guerrilla struggle. Isn't this how the Tigrayan armed movement began in the 1970s until the overthrow of Mengistu Haile Mariam's regime in 1991?

After the war, the plight of pregnant Ethiopian women in the camps in Sudan

© ASHRAF SHAZLY An Ethiopian refugee carries her baby in the Oum Raquba camp, in Sudan, November 21, 2020 Berekhti Burro was happy to giving birth to her second child in a safe place, but after fleeing the war in Ethiopia she is now preparing to give birth in Sudan, in a refugee camp where the health crisis threatens. Nine months pregnant, she left her first child with her grandmother in Humera, in the far north of Ethiopia, and walked long hours with her husband to cross the border into Sudan.

Hours later, the country’s army chief of staff said government forces had taken full control of Mekele — home to at least a half-million people — and Prime A communications shutdown and bans on media access across most of Tigray has made verifying the government ’s claims nearly impossible.

Ethiopia 's prime minister said on Saturday the taking of Mekele marked the “completion” of an offensive that started The minister in charge of democratization, Zadig Abraha, said the Ethiopian government doesn't yet Ethiopian government begins offensive in Tigray capital city of Mekelle.

Wills for vengeance

The war has also awakened old demons of identity. Ethnic massacres have been reported in the wake of military operations. The appalling massacre of Mai-Kadra (over 600 civilian deaths) on November 9, documented by several human rights organizations, is certainly not an isolated case. Once the fog of war has settled in the Tigray valleys, the list of victims, and abuses committed by both sides, could grow, and with it the will for revenge.

In Mekele itself, agglomeration of half a million inhabitants before the war , Abiy Ahmed affirms that the army "carries out the operation with the precision and the care necessary [...] to ensure that the civilians are not targeted ”and that it took control of the regional administration. Chief of Staff Berhanu Jula says federal troops are "chasing TPLF members who are in hiding." The leadership of the TPLF, for its part, maintains its war rhetoric: "Their brutality only adds to our resolve to fight these invaders to the last," wrote the party leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, on Saturday in a message sent to Reuters agency. It's about defending our right to self-determination. "