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SEVERAL thousand combatants have been killed in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, according to an official with the fugitive regional government.
But claims remain difficult to verify a month after the fighting erupted between Ethiopian and regional forces.
Getachew Reda, a senior adviser to the Tigray leader, urged young people and others in the region to “rise and deploy to battle in tens of thousands”, days after Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory over the weekend. With the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on the run in rugged territory, fears of a drawn-out conflict continue. But with communications and transport links still largely severed to the region of six million people, it is difficult to know the situation on the ground, including the extent of popular support for the TPLF and the number of people killed. “Our capacity to resist ultimately depends on the support we get from our people,” Mr Reda said. “It is possible to have the scenario where we stop everything and turn all the people into soldiers.” Ethiopian forces last weekend announced they had “full control” of the Tigray capital, Mekele, a city of half a million people.
Mr Reda said their side had made a “strategic withdrawal” from the city to minimise destruction, but were continuing to fight.
It is not clear how many people were killed as Ethiopian forces moved in on Mekele, but the International Committee of the Red Cross over the weekend said the city’s largest hospital had run out of body bags and staff suspended other services to focus on the wounded.
Redwan Hussein, an Ethiopian government spokesman, did not respond to questions about the conflict’s current death toll. Among the dead are at least five humanitarian workers, but few details have been released. The UN says more than 100 aid workers are reportedly still unaccounted for. The ongoing fighting complicates efforts to follow up on the breakthrough this week on humanitarian aid which has been blocked to the Tigray region since the fighting began. The UN said it had signed a deal with Ethiopia’s government to allow unimpeded aid access, but that has not yet begun.
“There are still operational issues of a logistical nature, some of a security nature, that are being worked out,” said a spokesman. An estimated one million people have been displaced in the crisis, including more than 47,000 who have fled into Sudan.