Eritrean troops withdraw from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region
MEKELLE, Ethiopia – After months of complaints of human rights violations, rapes and killings, Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have withdrew, reports say, just hours after the Ethiopian federal government declared a ceasefire. one-sided fire in the area.
For months, Eritrean troops have controlled sections of northern Tigray, but the federal government has denied initial reports. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed later admitted their presence and even pledged to withdraw them.
Witnesses told AP that the troops had left parts of Shire, Axum and Adwa, where they had been operating for eight months in violation of international law. It is not clear if their retirement was temporary as a strategy to counter the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray [TPLF].
The Eritrean Information Ministry, which has long spoken of the former Tigrayan rulers, did not answer questions about this troop withdrawal. The exact number of Eritrean soldiers serving in Tigray could not be established.
“We don’t yet know if they are withdrawing completely” from Tigray, acting US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Godec told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He said the United States had seen no statement from Eritrea declaring that it was committed to the ceasefire after “what appears to be a significant withdrawal of Ethiopian national defense forces from Tigray.”
Since November, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray, otherwise known as the Tigray Defense Forces [TDF] waged a guerrilla war against the Ethiopian national defense forces [ENDF] and Eritrean troops having been expelled from key towns like Mekelle.
Since taking office as prime minister, Abiy Ahmed has been accused by the TPLF of ignoring the region in power for years. Senior military officials did not respond to questions about the alleged withdrawal of Eritrean troops from the Tigray region.
The arrival of Tigray forces in the regional capital, Mekele, on Monday was greeted with cheers. Fighters moved to Axum and Shire on Tuesday, a town that has seen hundreds of thousands of people fleeing intimidation in western Tigray in recent months and is a key transit area for humanitarian aid.
Tigray forces now control much of the region after a major counteroffensive with mass popular support, International Crisis Group analyst William Davison said in a statement. They are “now able to facilitate access to many areas that were previously difficult to access,” he said, urging the Ethiopian government not to sabotage urgent humanitarian efforts.
But the speech of the Tigray forces “indicates how wary they are of the ceasefire,” Aly Verjee, senior adviser at the US Institute of Peace, told AP. “Of course, I think it is highly irresponsible of them to say such things. It does nothing for people on the verge of starvation. At the same time, I understand that they are motivated by a deep distrust of the Eritrean forces in particular. “
Major questions remain about the fate of more than one million civilians who the United Nations says remain in parts of Tigray that are difficult, if not impossible, to reach with aid. The United States has said up to 900,000 people now face conditions of famine, in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade.
This famine “is entirely man-made,” said the Acting Assistant Secretary of State.
Sarah Charles, assistant to the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, told the Washington hearing that the next week or two will be significant. She urged Ethiopia to lift a “communications blackout” on Tigray and said forces in the Amhara region must lift checkpoints on key routes for aid delivery.
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