Ethiopia’s military begins offensive against capital of defiant Tigray region, local officials say
By Lesley Wroughton and Danielle Paquette,
Nariman El-Mofty AP
Ethiopia’s military launched an assault on the capital of the northern Tigray region Saturday after last-minute diplomatic efforts by three former African presidents failed to persuade the fighting sides to reach a truce, according to the regional government and local media.
The collapse in dialogue raised fears of civil war in Ethiopia and further instability and a growing humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa.
The offensive against Mekele — a normally peaceful city of 500,0000 — followed the end of a 72-hour ultimatum issued by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to rebelling leaders of the Tigray region to lay down arms after three weeks of unrest.
Ethiopian forces “started hitting with heavy weaponry and artillery the center of Mekelle,” the local government said in a statement to Tigrayan media. Video of the claim also surfaced on Facebook, and two humanitarian groups with staff in the city confirmed the reports to Agence France-Presse.
[Watch: What’s behind the conflict in Ethiopia?]
Claims from both sides have been impossible to verify during the conflict because communications have been down and access to Mekele remains strictly controlled.
The military campaign is directed against the political party in charge of the province, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which once ruled the coalition that led Ethiopia for nearly three decades. After Abiy’s rise, leaders returned to their power base in Tigray. Relations with the central government in recent months have imploded.
A senior diplomat said blasts rocked the city’s north on Saturday, citing satellite phone calls from a government official who heard them. Local television, which had been operating until midday, suddenly went static.
“It’s happening,” said the diplomat, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Nariman El-Mofty
AP
Men who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region run to receive rice at the refugee camp in eastern Sudan on Friday.
The shells appeared to be coming from surrounding areas, said a humanitarian official in Addis Ababa, who fielded reports from staffers in Mekele. No one could see federal forces.
International concern mounted that Mekele’s half a million residents could get caught in the violence. More than 40,000 fled the area before government forces closed in on the city — an exodus that aid workers said included pregnant women, young children and people battling illness.
Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the TPLF, told Reuters that Mekele was under “heavy bombardment” on Saturday, adding that Ethiopian soldiers were using artillery.
[After fleeing Tigray, refugees in Sudan recount brutal killings]
Billene Seyoum, a spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office, denied claims that Ethiopian forces were striking civilian areas. “The safety of Ethiopians in Makelle and Tigray region continues as priority for the federal government,” she said.
Hours before reports of blasts in the city emerged Saturday, Lt. Gen. Hassan Ibrahim said in a statement that Ethiopian forces had taken over Wikro, a town 30 miles north of Mekele.
The city, he wrote, would be under control of federal forces within days.
The three African Union envoys who met with Abiy — former presidents Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa — urged the Ethiopian leader this week to open dialogue with the rebelling TPLF.
He has publicly refused to take that step, calling the TPLF an illegal “clique” and an internal matter for Ethiopia to resolve on its own. (He barred the envoys from seeing TPLF commanders.)
Abiy won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for ending a two-decade-long standoff with neighboring Eritrea.
Pope Francis was among those appealing for peace Saturday.
“I invite everyone to pray for #Ethiopia where armed clashes have intensified and are causing a serious humanitarian situation,” he tweeted. “I appeal to the parties in conflict so that the violence might ceases, life may be safeguarded and the populations can regain #peace.”
The U.N. refugee agency has warned that a “full-scale humanitarian crisis” is unfolding in Tigray. Food and water may be running out in the province of 6 million, putting untold lives at risk.
Aid workers said they had no way to reach people who had been forced from their homes for weeks. Access remains unclear, several groups said, after Ethiopian officials announced the opening of humanitarian routes on Thursday.
Abiy’s government has blamed the rebels in the north for the crisis that has grabbed the world’s attention.
“The last peaceful gate which had remained open for the TPLF clique to walk through has now been firmly closed as a result of TPLF’s contempt for the people of Ethiopia,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
President-elect Joe Biden’s national security adviser nominee, Jake Sullivan, urged dialogue led by the African Union.
“I’m deeply concerned about the risk of violence against civilians,” he said on Twitter, “including potential war crimes.”
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