ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
The leader of Ethiopia's dissident Tigray region has said that his people are "ready to die" defending their homeland, rejecting Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's ultimatum that they surrender within 72 hours.
Abiy launched a military campaign against the Tigray People's
Liberation Front (TPLF) on November 4, accusing it of attacking two federal
military camps in the northern region, as well as defying and seeking to
destabilise his government.
The federal army says its forces are within 60 kilometres (37
miles) of Mekele, the Tigrayan capital and seat of the TPLF, ahead of a
threatened all-out bombardment of the city of half a million people.
Abiy -- last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner -- on Sunday called
on the TPLF to surrender peacefully within three days, saying they were
"at a point of no return".
But the TPLF's leader Debretsion Gebremichael said Abiy was
trying to cover for setbacks his army had suffered against Tigrayan forces, and
was issuing threats to buy time.
"He doesn't understand who we are. We are people of
principle and ready to die in defence of our right to administer our
region," Debretsion told AFP via WhatsApp on Monday.
A communications blackout in the region has made claims from
both sides difficult to verify.
Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew, as quoted by state-affiliated
Fana Broadcasting Corporate on Monday, said that federal troops were
"marching into Mekele" having captured key towns to the north and
south.
The army has threatened a "no mercy" tank assault on
the TPLF leadership in Mekele, warning civilians to leave while they still can,
raising concerns among rights activists.
"Treating a whole city as a military target would not only
(be) unlawful, it could also be considered a form of collective punishment,"
Human Rights Watch researcher Laetitia Bader wrote on Twitter.
Abiy has urged the people of Mekele to side with the national army against the TPLF, "in bringing this treasonous group to justice".
Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in nearly
three weeks of fighting which has seen warplanes bomb the region and tanks
enter the fray.
Amnesty International also documented a gruesome massacre in
which "scores and likely hundreds" of people were stabbed and hacked
to death in the southwest town of Mai-Kadra.
Over 40,000 Ethiopians have meanwhile fled west into Sudan and
rockets have hit Eritrea to the north, spurring fears the internal conflict
risks instability beyond its borders.
The UN
Security Council will hold its first meeting on the conflict in
Tigray, diplomatic sources said late Monday.
Tuesday's virtual meeting will not be open to the public, they
said, and it was not yet clear if a statement would be issued afterward.
In Bahir Dar, the capital of the Amhara region south of Tigray,
two witnesses told AFP on Monday that rockets had hit the city, the third time
it has endured shelling since the fighting began.
"Three rockets fell on the city near the airport area. We
don't know about casualties or damages," said one witness, who asked not
be named.
There was no immediate response from the government, nor any
claim of responsibility.
The TPLF claimed responsibility for earlier rocket strikes on
Bahir Dar and Gondar, another city in Amhara, as well as Eritrea's capital
Asmara.
Abiy in a statement late Sunday accused Tigrayan forces of
destroying key infrastructure in their retreat from fighting, including the
airport in the town of Axum and schools, bridges, medical centres and roads.
Images broadcast by Ethiopian authorities on Monday showed what
appeared to be deep gouges and damage to the tarmac at Axum.
Abiy has resisted international pressure to halt the fighting,
including from the African Union (AU), describing the campaign as a "law
enforcement operation" against a "treasonous group" that is now
entering its final phase.
Redwan Hussein, spokesman for an Ethiopian committee handling
the conflict, said the government would meet envoys sent by the AU "as a
matter of respect" but flatly ruled out any talks with the TPLF.
"Facts on the ground have changed, and we've come to the
very end," he told reporters on Monday.
The TPLF led the armed struggle that toppled the brutal Derg
regime in 1991 and controlled the coalition that took over, ruling Ethiopia for
nearly three decades until Abiy was appointed in 2018.
Since then, Tigrayan leaders have complained of being unfairly
targeted in corruption prosecutions, removed from top positions and broadly
scapegoated for the country's woes. - Africa
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