Warning over grave danger faced by civilians from imminent tank attack
Alarm has spiralled over Ethiopia's imminent tank attack on the capital of the Tigray region, with the United Nations among organisations warning of the “grave danger” faced by civilians.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed's 72-hour ultimatum for the region's leaders to surrender ends today.
His military has warned civilians there will be “no mercy” if they don't move away from the leaders in time – which some human rights groups and diplomats say could violate international law.
Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, said :" The highly aggressive rhetoric on both sides regarding the fight for [Ti gray capital] M eke le is dangerously provocative and risks placing already vulnerable and frightened civilians in grave danger.”
She added that the allegation that Tigray leaders were hiding among civilians “does not then give the Ethiopian state carte blanche to respond with the use of artillery in densely populated areas”.
A year before taking power in Ethiopia and introducing reforms to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr Abiy successfully defended a PHD thesis in conflict resolution. Now he sits in Africa's diplomatic capital and rejects calls for dialogue.
Meanwhile, a powerful voice in efforts for dialogue, the United States, is in disarray as the Trump administration remains focused on internal politics after losing the November election.
The diplomatic vacuum has brought Ethiopia, one of Africa' s most powerful and populous countries, to what Amnesty International calls “the brink of a deadly escalation” at the heart of the strategic Horn of Africa.
With time running out before the assault on Mekele and its population of some half- million people, the UN Security Council is reportedly meeting to discuss the situation.
However, efforts by the UN secretary-general, the African Union, the European Union and others have been turned aside.
The Ethiopian government continues to insist that the leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) are criminals.
On Monday, Red wan Hussein, spokesman for the government' s task force on Tigray, told reporters :“All possible scenarios will be on the table to talk – except bringing the gang to the table as a legitimate entity."
The heavily armed TPLF dominated Ethiopia's government for more than a 25 years. It was sidelined after Mr Abiy took office in 2018 and sought to centralise power in a country long ruled along ethnic lines.
Meanwhile, hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed, nearly 40,000 people have fled into Sudan and the UN says two million people in the sealed-off Tigray region urgently need help as food and medical supplies run out.
With the crisis exploding, some were dismayed to hear the top US diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, repeat Washington's stance that the TPLF was to blame for seeking to depose Mr Abiy.
The US stance is notably different from other high-profile pleas for dialogue, which urge both sides for an immediate deescalation without assigning blame.