Tigray forces claim to have shot down Ethiopian plane and taken town

Rebellious forces from Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray said they had shot down a military plane and retaken a town from federal forces on Sunday, as war dragged on a day after the government announced its military offensive was over.

There was no immediate comment from the government or the military on the claims made by Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in text messages to Reuters.

Claims from all sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to Tigray have been down and access tightly controlled since the conflict began on Nov. 4.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government has been trying to quell a rebellion by the TPLF, a powerful ethnically-based party that dominated the central government for nearly three decades until Abiy came to power in 2018. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed since the fighting began, nearly 44,000 have fled to neighbouring Sudan, and there are reports of militias targeting civilians.

The conflict has been a major test for Abiy, a leader who pledged to unite the myriad ethnic groups that make up Ethiopia's 115 million population, but who has faced repeated bouts of violence across the country. The flow of refugees and rocket attacks by the TPLF on neighbouring Eritrea also threaten to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region.

Abiy, who has rebuffed international offers to mediate, said on Saturday evening that federal troops had taken control of the Tigrayan capital Mekelle, allaying fears of protracted fighting in the city of 500,000 people. He said federal police would try to arrest TPLF "criminals" and bring them to court.

Police then issued arrest warrants for 17 military officers on charges of treason and embezzlement of public properties, state-affiliated Fana TV reported. Arrest warrants already exist for 117 other senior officers with alleged ties to the TPLF.

It was not clear if any TPLF leaders had surrendered or been apprehended since Saturday. Their whereabouts were also unknown.

TPLF chairman Debretsion told Reuters in a series of text messages on Saturday that while the group was withdrawing from around the city it would fight on — a declaration that raised the spectre of a drawn-out guerrilla war.

"This is about defending our right to self determination," Debretsion said.

In text messages on Sunday, he said that his forces had shot down an Ethiopian military plane and captured the pilot, and had also retaken the town of Axum.

Also on Sunday, Ethiopian state TV (ETV) said that 70 graves, some holding individual and some multiple bodies, were found in the town of Humera in Tigray. The news reader did not say who might have killed the people buried in the graves.

Rights investigators and civilians fleeing the conflict say fighters from both sides, including civilian militias supporting more formal security forces, have carried out mass killings. Both the government and the TPLF deny their forces were involved.