ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI: African peace envoys were due to meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday, a day after he said the military was beginning the “final phase” of an offensive in the northern Tigray region that rights groups fear could bring huge civilian casualties.
The government had given the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) until Wednesday to lay down their arms or face an assault on Mekelle, the regional capital of 500,000 people.
The United Nations says 200 aid workers are also in the city. The envoys were due to meet Abiy at 11 am, Redwan Hussein, spokesman of the government’s State of Emergency Task Force for the Tigray conflict, said.
The African Union envoys were in Addis Ababa “with a view to helping to mediate between the parties to conflict” in Ethiopia, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the AU chair, said earlier this week. Abiy, who won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize for ending a two-decade standoff with Eritrea, has said he will not talk with TPLF leaders until they are defeated or give up.
Thousands of people are already believed to have died amid air strikes and ground fighting since the war began on November 4. The United Nations estimates 1.1 million Ethiopians will need aid as a result of the conflict.
The conflict has sent shockwaves through the Horn of Africa. More than 43,000 refugees have fled to Sudan. TPLF rockets have hit the capital of neighbouring Eritrea.
Reuters was unable to reach the TPLF for comment on Friday morning, but two diplomats said fighting raged in several areas outside Mekelle. A resident of Mekelle said the city itself was quiet on Thursday night. With phone and Internet connections shut off to the region and access to the area tightly controlled, verifying claims by all sides has been impossible.
There was no indication that the Ethiopian military had entered the city of Mekelle. The TPLF has previously said it was digging trenches around the city.
Reuters was unable to verify those claims. Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said on Thursday that the government was trying to make people in the city aware of the military operation. “We have made the people of Mekelle to be aware of the operation by deploying military helicopters and dropping pamphlets in Tigrinya and also in Amharic so that they protect themselves against this,” he said. — Reuters
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