Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy declares victory in Tigray conflict

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Published on November 30, 2020 by

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced that his army is now “fully in control” of Tigray’s regional capital of Mekele. The leader of the rebellious Tigray forces, however, says the conflict will continue. Tigray rebels, meanwhile, claimed fighters have shot down a federal military jet and retaken the town of Axum. Claims from both sides are difficult to verify as phone and internet links to the region have been down and access tightly controlled. Abiy’s government had been trying to suppress a rebellion from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a powerful ethnically based party that dominated the region from 1991 until Abiy came to power in 2018.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in Tigray since an offensive by Ethiopian forces in the region began on November 4. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Sunday that hospitals in Mekele are running “dangerously low” on supplies to care for the wounded. It said a referral hospital in the city is lacking body bags for the dead and is running low on basic supplies such as gloves. The UNHCR said they are very concerned about the fate of nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees there amid reports that some have beena bducted. Additionally, according to the UNHCR, nearly 44,000 people have fled the region to neighboring Sudan, which lacks the infrastructure to handle the influx of refugees.

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