Ethiopia declares victory as military takes Tigray capital
NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethiopia’s military has gained “full control” of the capital of the defiant Tigray region, the army announced Saturday, and the prime minister said the taking of Mekele marked the “completion” of an offensive that started nearly fourweeks ago.
The regional government said the city of 500,000was “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.”
Now, 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 sweeping reforms thatwon him theNobel Peace Prize.
Abiy’s government has accused the TPLF of inciting unrest and seeking to reclaim power, and each government now regards the other as illegal. The prime minister has rejected dialogue with TPLF leaders.
AsAbiy spokeof “returning normalcy” to the Tigray region, one of his ministers told The Associated Press in a phone interview “there is no way” the search for the TPLF leaders will take weeks.
Theminister in charge of democratization, Zadig Abraha, also said the Ethiopian government doesn’t yet know the number of people killed inthe conflict.
“We have kept the civilian casualty very low,” he asserted. Humanitarians and human rights groups have reported several hundred dead, including combatants.
Some Ethiopians at home and in the diaspora
rejoiced at the news that Mekelewas under the military’s control. “Thanks to the Almighty God our creator. Amen. Let peace prevail in Ethiopia!!!” former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn tweeted.
As international alarm has grown since the conflict began Nov. 4, so has a massive humanitarian crisis. The Tigray 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 desperately 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.
With communications severed, it is difficult to verify claims by the warring sides. The Tigray leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, could not be reached Saturday.
The TPLF turned churches, schools and densely populated neighborhoods in Mekele “into armament stores and launching pads,” senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein asserted in a Facebook post. He said “scattered remnants” of the
TPLF fighters were carrying out “sporadic shootings.”
The shelling inMekele, a densely populated city, immediately raised concerns about civilian casualties. Ethiopia’s government had warned residents there wouldbe“nomercy” if they didn’t move away from the TPLF leaders in time. The United Nations said some fled as tanks closed in and Abiy’s 72-hour ultimatum for TPLF leaders to surrender expired.
“I invite everyone to pray for Ethiopia where armed clashes have intensified and are causing a serious humanitarian situation,” Pope Francis tweeted Saturday.
As Ethiopian forces movedin, Maj. Gen. Hassan Ibrahim warned that “it is possible that some of the wanted people may go to their families or neighboring areas and try to hide for few days. But our armed forces will be tasked to hunt down and capture these criminals onebyone.”
TheUnitedNations continues to seek immediate access to deliver aid.
U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi on Saturday visited Sudan’s Umm Rakouba camp, which houses some 10,000 refugees. He said about $ 150 million is needed over the next six months.