Ethiopia’s army said it seized the capital of the rebellious Tigray region.

Ethiopia’s prime minister says police to hunt group’s leaders

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia’s military has gained “full control” of the capital of the Tigray region, the army announced Saturday, and the prime minister said the taking of Mekele marked the “completion” of an offensive that started nearly four weeks ago.

The regional government said the city of a half-million people was “heavily bombarded” in the final push to arrest its leaders.

“God bless Ethiopia and its people!” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement. “We have entered Mekele without innocent civilians being targets.”

He said police will pursue the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, who run the region and dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition before Abiy came to power in 2018 and sidelined them among the reforms that won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Abiy’s government has accused the TPLF of inciting unrest and seeking to reclaim power, and each government regards the other as illegal. The prime minister has rejected dialogue with TPLF leaders, including during a Friday meeting with three African Union special envoys.

As Abiy spoke of “returning normalcy” to the Tigray region, one of his ministers said in a phone interview “there is no way” the search for the TPLF leaders will take weeks.

The minister in charge of democratization, Zadig Abraha, also said the Ethiopian government doesn’t yet know the number of people killed in the conflict.

“We have kept the civilian casualty very low,” he said. Humanitarian and rights groups have reported several hundred dead, including combatants.

As international alarm has grown since the conflict began on Nov. 4, so has a humanitarian crisis. The region of 6 million people has been cut off from the world as the military pursued what Abiy called a “law enforcement operation” with airstrikes and tanks.

Food, fuel, cash and medical supplies have run low. Nearly 1 million people have been displaced, including more than 40,000 who fled into Sudan. Camps home to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in northern Tigray have been in the line of fire.