In an announcement made Sunday night in Addis Ababa, he left 72 hours for TPLF’s separators to lay down their weapons.
“The road to your destruction is coming to an end and we ask you to give up for the next 72 hours.” This is the message that Abiy Ahmed sent yesterday to the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The Prime Minister therefore calls on them to lay down their arms. “You are at a point without return,” he adds. Take the last chance. ”
A few hours earlier, the Ethiopian army had warned that an attack on Mékélé was imminent. An army spokesman called on the 500,000 residents living there to flee. “Directives,” he said, “have been communicated to you to distance yourself from the junta, after which there will be no mercy.”
In response to this announcement by the Army, Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the TPLF, promised that his troops would wage “fierce fighting.” The attack on Mékélé will not be decisive in his eyes, because, he said, “as long as the occupying forces are in Tigray, the fighting will not end”.
On Saturday, the government claimed that the army had conquered several cities on the way to Mékélé. The TPLF accused the military forces of killing civilians during the bombing of the city of Adigrat. Accusation rejected by the government. Problem, it is impossible to verify the statements from the two camps, because the province is almost cut off from the world.
There is currently no official report on the number of victims. One of the few figures available is the number of people who fled the fighting: more than 36,000 Ethiopians have joined Sudan, according to the country’s refugee commission.
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