The forces of Ethiopia’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have destroyed an airport in the ancient town of Axum, state-affiliated media said yesterday, as advancing federal troops gave them a 72-hour ultimatum to surrender.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has told the TPLF, which had been ruling the mountainous northern zone of 5 million people, to lay down their arms by tomorrow or face a final assault on the regional capital, Mekelle.
TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said that threat was a cover for government forces to regroup after what he described as defeats on three fronts.
Photo: AFP
There was no immediate response from either side to the other’s latest comments, and Reuters could not confirm their statements.
Claims by all sides are hard to verify because telephone and Internet communication has been down.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, have been killed in fighting and airstrikes that erupted on Nov. 4, sending about 40,000 refugees into neighboring Sudan. The conflict has spread beyond Tigray, with the TPLF firing rockets into the neighbouring Amhara region and across the border to Eritrea.
International appeals for mediation, from the UN and around Africa and Europe, have so far not gained traction.
Fana broadcaster said TPLF troops had destroyed the airport serving the town of Axum, which lies northwest of Mekelle and is a popular tourist draw and UNESCO World Heritage site.
Axum’s history and ruins, including fourth-century obelisks when the Axumite Empire was at its height, gives Ethiopia its claim to be one of the world’s oldest centers of Christianity.
Legend says it was once home to the Queen of Sheba and that an Axum church housed the Ark of the Covenant.
UN humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia Catherine Sozi urged safety guarantees for aid workers, Mekelle’s more than half a million inhabitants, and their health, school and water systems.
Abiy’s government has repeatedly said it is only targeting TPLF leaders and facilities to restore law and order after they rose up against federal troops. It denies hitting civilians.
“Our women and men in uniform have shown great care to protect civilians from harm during the law enforcement operation they have carried out in Tigray so far,” its taskforce for the Tigray conflict said yesterday.
The TPLF says Abiy has “invaded” their region in order to dominate them and is inflicting “merciless” damage on Tigrayans.
“We are people of principle and are ready to die in defence of our right to administer our region,” TPLF leader Debretsion said in a text message to Reuters yesterday.
The Ethiopian military late on Saturday warned civilians in Mekelle that there would be “no mercy” if they do not “save themselves” before a final offensive to flush out defiant regional leaders — a threat that Human Rights Watch on Sunday said could violate international law.
“From now on, the fighting will be a tank battle,” Ethiopian military spokesman Colonel Dejene Tsegaye said, adding that the army was marching on Mekelle and would encircle it with tanks. “Our people in Mekelle should be notified that they should protect themselves from heavy artillery.”
He accused the Tigray leaders of hiding among the population of the city of about half a million people and warned civilians to “steer away” from them.’
However, “treating a whole city as a military target would not only unlawful, it could also be considered a form of collective punishment,’’ Human Rights Watch researcher Laetitia Bader wrote in a tweet.
“In other words, war crimes,” former US national security adviser Susan Rice wrote in a tweet.
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