Military now controls the Tigray capital

NAIROBI, KENYA » Ethiopia’s military has gained “full control” of the capital of the defiant Tigray region, the army announced after the Tigray government reported that the city of a half-million people was being “heavily bombarded” in the final push to arrest the region’s leaders.

“God bless Ethiopia and its people!” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said, declaring that the taking of Mekele marked the “completion” of the military offensive. Police will pursue the arrest of 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 sweeping reformsthat won him the Nobel Peace Prize.