Ethiopian army enters Tigray capital Mekele, says PM Abiy

ETHIOPIA’S army entered the capital of the Tigray region on Saturday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced, as the city of half a million people braced for an all-out offensive by government forces against its dissident leaders.

The local government said earlier that heavy shelling had rocked the centre of Mekele, a statement confirmed by two humanitarian officials with staff in the city.

“We’ve been able to enter Mekele city without innocent civilians being targets,” Abiy was quoted as saying by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC).

Abiy, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, announced November 4 he had ordered military operations against Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

More than three weeks of fierce fighting has left thousands of people dead.

Tens of thousands more have streamed across the border into Sudan, and displacement within Tigray is believed to be widespread.

Abiy announced Thursday he had ordered a “final” offensive against the Tigray military.

A communications blackout in Tigray has made it difficult to verify claims about how the fighting is going.

A spokesman for a crisis committee formed in response to hostilities in Tigray did not respond to a request for comment about reported shelling in Mekele, which has already been hit by air strikes.

But Addis Ababa Saturday said the “aerial engagement has been precise and targets only TPLF’s military depot, weaponry and arsenals”, avoiding “civilian facilities”.

The Tigray government accused Abiy of teaming up with Isaias Afwerki, president of neighbouring Eritrea, for the assault on Mekele.

“The Tigray regional state would like it to be known to friends and enemies alike that it will give proportional response to the massacres and property damages being done by those fascists,” it said.

Ethiopia has denied enlisting Eritrean military support against Tigray but has acknowledged using Eritrean territory.

Residents of the border city of Humera in western Tigray told AFP that shells fired from Eritrea hit both residential and commercial structures during fighting earlier this month.

At least one rocket fired from Tigray targeted Eritrea’s capitalAsmara on Friday night, regional diplomats told AFP.