Ethiopia Tigray crisis: Abiy issues ‘ultimatum’ as civilians flee fighting

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the military operation in the northern Tigray region is entering its “final phase” now that a three-day ultimatum given to fighters to surrender has expired.

At least 27,000 people have so far fled the fighting into neighbouring Sudan.

The UN has said a “full-scale humanitarian crisis” is unfolding.

The conflict began almost a fortnight ago as tensions between the federal and the Tigray officials boiled over.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party in charge of the region, sees Mr Abiy’s government as illegitimate because he postponed national elections which were due to be held in August.

The federal government made the decision because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Abiy ordered a military operation after he accused that TPLF of treason for sending its fighters to occupy a military base.

TPLF has denied the claim.

The party’s adviser, Fesseha Tessema, a former Ethiopian diplomat, has told the BBC that civilian sites in Tigray’s main city, Mekelle, are being bombed by federal forces.

“[The people of Tigray] haven’t done anything wrong, they are in their own homes, churches,” Mr Fesseha said.

But the federal government has denied targeting civilians and said that air attacks are aimed at the Tigrayan military.

The UN fears the numbers fleeing Ethiopia may be just a fraction of those forced from their homes by the fighting, but for the moment aid agencies have no access to the Tigray region.

The conflict has also reportedly killed hundreds, but getting information from Tigray is hard as there is a virtual communications blackout.

Regional powers Kenya and Uganda have called for negotiations to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The Ethiopian government has, however, ruled out talks with the TPLF.

What else did Mr Abiy say?

In a Facebook post, the prime minister thanked TPLF fighters who, he said, took advantage of the three-day deadline to switch sides but he did not give a number.

He said that his government was “ready to receive and reintegrate our fellow Ethiopians fleeing to neighbouring countries”.

How bad is the humanitarian crisis?

The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, said that “a full-scale humanitarian crisis is unfolding” and thousands were fleeing the fighting.

The agency was “on stand-by to provide assistance in Tigray when access and security allow” spokesman Babar Baloch told a Geneva news briefing.

“There may be massive displacement inside Tigray and that is of course a concern and we try to prepare the best way possible,” Jens Laerke, spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the briefing.

How bad is the violence?

Hundreds have reportedly died in Ethiopia since the fighting began on 4 November.

Human rights group Amnesty International said it had confirmed that “scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death” in the town of Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) on Monday last week.

Prime Minister Abiy has accused forces loyal to Tigray’s leaders of carrying out the mass killings. The TPLF has denied involvement, saying it will welcome an independent international investigation.

Ethiopia’s human rights commission said it would send a team to investigate.

Why are the government and TPLF fighting?

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s military and political life for decades before Mr Abiy took office in 2018 and pushed through major reforms.

Last year, Mr Abiy dissolved the ruling coalition, made up of several ethnically based regional parties, and merged them into a single, national party, which the TPLF refused to join.

BBC