On Sunday, rebellious forces in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray announced they had shot down a military aircraft and taken back a city from federal forces. In 2017 a conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation (TPLF) and Ethiopia’s federal government began. The TPLF was once a powerful ethnically based party that dominated the central government for nearly three decades in Ethiopia. The party attacked federal troops at a base in Tigray, sparking a war they say is necessary because the government is overlooking them.
Hunt for Senior Military officers in Tigray
Since the fighting began, thousands of people have died, and nearly 44,000 Ethiopians have fled to neighboring Sudan. Furthermore, there have been reports that the militants in Tigray are targeting civilians. Other reports reveal that there have been rocket attacks by the TPLF on neighboring Eritrea. Because of such claims, police issued arrest warrants for 117 senior military officers in Tigray. The police charged the senior military officers with alleged ties to the TPLF with treason and embezzlement of public properties.
So far, the conflict has proved to be a major test for Prime minister Abiy. When the leader got into power in 2018, he pledged to unite the myriad ethnic groups that make up Ethiopia’s 115 million population. But the Prime minister has faced repeated bouts of violence across the country ever since he started serving. Despite being faced with these problems, he has continuedly rebuffed international offers to mediate. Mr. Abiy assures that he and his government are more than capable of handling the situation at hand.
This Saturday evening, Abiy announced that the federal troops had taken back control of the Tigrayan capital. He further added that Ethiopia’s military offensive was over, and no civilian had been hurt during the process. Prime minister Abiy provided no information about whether any of the TPLF leaders had surrendered. Additionally, their whereabouts were unknown.
TPLF Claim they Shot Down a Plane
On Saturday, the TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael told the reporters in a series of texts that his troops had shot down an Ethiopian military plane. He added that they had captured the pilot and also retaken the town of Axum.
The government or the military in Ethiopia has not confirmed nor denied the TPLF leader’s allegations. Reporters have found difficulty in verifying claims made by each side of the war because TPFL forces disconnected phone and internet links. Also, since the conflict began, access to the Tigray region has been tightly controlled by the federal government. TPLF chairman Debretsion wrote in his texts to reporters that while the group was withdrawing from around the city, it would fight on.
On Sunday, after Prime minister, Abiy had announced the military offensive’s success, a news station, the Ethiopian State TV (ETV), reported the findings in Tigray. The newsreader reported that officers found 70 graves, some holding bodies and some multiple bodies, in the town of Humera in Tigray. The reporter did not say who might have killed the people found in the graves.
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