Tigrayan troops enter the regional capital after months of fighting
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Troops loyal to the former ruling Ethiopian rebel party Tigray have entered the Mekelle regional capital, abusing the government in Addis Ababa since the deadly conflict began in November.
“Talanda Mekelle,” said a member of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, eight months after the outbreak of a civil war that is said to have killed thousands, displaced millions and threatened famine.
One Mekelle resident said “everyone is very happy if the militants are in control of the city”, as people shoot Tigrayan red and yellow flags. But he added that within about 25 kilometers around the city “there is a war”.
The call of the Tigray interim administration officials, appointed by Addis Ababa, has not been answered, but eyewitnesses and reports say they have fled the Tigrayan capital.
Billene Seyoum, spokesman the chief was Abiy Ahmed, did not mention the Tigrayan army as a capture of Mekelle.
But he confirmed that the Ethiopian government had announced Monday that it was “illegal to stop the war”. International organizations have sounded the alarm Hundreds of thousands are living in times of famine.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said on Monday night after speaking to Abiy that he hoped “for an end to violence in Tigray”.
In recent weeks, as well as journalists and aides, TPLF listening groups have seized areas occupied by Ethiopian troops.
Getachew Reda, a senior member of the TPLF, said on Sunday that “our teams are doing more”, but what they have said cannot be confirmed. On Monday, he told Reuters via satellite that Mekelle was “in our hands”.
War broke out in the northernmost part of Ethiopia’s Tigray in early November after Abiy sent troops to remove the TPLF.
Officials say they have been left with no choice but to attack Tigray after TPLF-loyal forces attacked the northern army. Abiy promised that the operation would restore peace and order as soon as possible, but the dispute has been temporarily reversed. war this has led to a lawsuit killing many people, causing economic hardship.
It has also formed forces from neighboring Eritrea, whose headquarters in Asmara have been affected by rebel rockets and their strong leader, Isaias Afwerki, who hates the TPLF. The controversy has angered other countries that in 2019 awarded Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize.
The government in Addis Ababa called the TPLF, a major party in Tigray, a “terrorist group”. As a leading member of the four parties that ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades until 2018, when Abiy took office, the TPLF played a major role in national politics.
The Tigray people have been fighting in Addis Ababa. They did this in the 1940’s against Emperor Haile Selassie during the Woyane era. Forty years later, he led the war against Marxist Derg, who came to power in 1991 after a march in Addis Ababa.
The unanimous announcement that came after the TPLF militant group gained significant benefits from the armed forces, Eurasia wrote this Monday, adding that Tigrayan fighters “can take part in a temporary partnership because it gives everyone a chance to strengthen the fund. Mekelle ”.
It warned, however, that “while this opens the door to dialogue to better resolve the conflict, negotiations are likely to be complex and ongoing”.
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