Ethiopia : Gov’t In Control Of Tigray

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced the end of military operations in the northern Tigray region after the army said it was in “full control” of the regional capital, Mekelle. Since November 4, the Ethiopian government has been trying to quell a rebellion by a powerful ethnic faction, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in a war that has shaken the Horn of Africa. Thousands of people are believed to have died and nearly one million forced from their homes, including some 43,000 refugees who fled to neighbouring Sudan.
In a statement on Twitter on Saturday, Abiy said, “We now have ahead of us the critical task of rebuilding what has been destroyed; repairing what is damaged; returning those who have fled, with utmost priority of returning normalcy to the people of the Tigray region” he said, adding that federal police would continue searching for and detaining TPLF “criminals” and would bring them to court.
Hours later, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said the heavily armed Tigrayan forces would keep fighting the government. “Their brutality can only add to our resolve to fight these invaders to the last,” he told the Reuters news agency in a text message. Asked if that meant his forces will continue fighting, he replied: “Certainly. This is about defending our right to self-determination.”
Abiy’s claim of victory came after the country’s army chief General Birhanu Jula announced that government forces “completely controlled Mekelle”. The Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation quoted him saying that 7,000 members of the army’s Northern Command who were held hostage by the TPLF had also been freed. The gover...