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| This image made from undated video released by the state-owned Ethiopian News Agency shows Ethiopian military near the border of Tigray and Amhara. Photograph: APAdd caption |
Ethiopia’s prime minister has ordered federal military forces to launch a “final offensive” on the capital of the restive Tigray region after his 72-hour ultimatum for dissident local leaders to surrender expired.
In a statement posted on
social media, Abiy Ahmed said great care would be taken to protect innocent
civilians from harm and said efforts would be made by government troops to
ensure the city of Mekelle, which has a population of 500,000, was not
“severely damaged”.
“We call on the people of Mekelle and its environs to disarm, stay at home and stay away from military targets [and] to do their part in reducing damages to be sustained because of a handful of criminal elements,” Ahmed said.
Earlier this week, military officials warned of “no mercy” if residents of Mekelle did not distance themselves from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the local ruling party.
Debretsion Gebremichael, the leader of the TPLF, said on Tuesday his people were “ready to die” defending their homeland.
Abiy launched the military campaign against the TPLF on 4 November, accusing it of attacking federal military camps in the northern region and seeking to destabilise the country.
The 44-year-old leader, who won the Nobel peace prize last year for his peace deal with neighbouring Eritrea, said the TPLF had orchestrated a “spate of violent attacks” across Ethiopia to “frustrate the democratisation process”
Officials in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, describe the offensive in Tigray as a “law enforcement operation” aiming to remove “traitorous” rebel leaders and restore central authority. The TPLF says it is defending its legitimate rights under Ethiopia’s devolved constitutional system.
Hundreds, possibly thousands,
have died in the conflict so far, with up to a million people displaced. At
least one massacre has taken place, with allegations of atrocities made against
both sides.
Last-minute efforts by the
African Union and the United Nations to defuse the crisis have failed. Abiy on
Wednesday rejected international “interference”.
The UN says shortages have
become “very critical” in the Tigray region, with fuel and cash running out.
Food for nearly 100,000 refugees from Eritrea will be gone in a week, according
to a report released overnight. More than 600,000 people who rely on monthly
food rations have not received them this month
Refugees fleeing the ongoing fighting in Tigray region. Photograph: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/ReutersAdd caption
Travel blockages are so dire that even within Mekelle, the UN
World Food Programme cannot transport food from its warehouses there.
Communications
and travel links remain severed with the Tigray region since the conflict broke
out, and Human Rights Watch is warning that “actions that deliberately impede
relief supplies” violate international humanitarian law.
The
UN has reported people fleeing Mekelle, but with communications cut, it is
unclear how many residents are aware of the impending assault.
The
head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Thursday that “extreme caution to
avoid civilian harm is of even greater importance, now, at this stage of the
conflict”.
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