Araweelo News Network.
#Tigray, Mekelle (ANN)-The situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been clouded by the government’s alleged incursion into the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle, despite ongoing fighting and shelling bombs by the government last week.
Tigrayan leaders are warning of developments in the area, particularly in the town of Mekelle, with reports of shelling by the Abiy government as well as looting and fighting continuing in parts of the region. They also warned of genocide in the area.
READ: Tigray spokesman Getachew Reda says thousands of Ethiopian soldiers and militias killed
Aid officials are also dismissing the harsh living conditions in the area, especially in the town of Mekelle where about 500,000 people live, who are in dire need of basic services such as electricity. Telephone and Internet communications, and food and medicine are in short supply, amid fears of a massacre and abuses by troops and surrounding militias, some of whom are trying to enter the city.
The United Nations and the Ethiopian government agreed last week to provide access to aid, but so far the agreement has not been implemented, according to aid officials, and aid workers and supplies are still stranded along the Tigray border.
The Abiy government says the conflict will end a week after it captured the Tigray regional capital of Mekelle, but TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message Saturday that fighting was still going on outside the city.
Debretsion Gebremichael, also said that federal forces shelled Abbi Adi on Friday, and Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the TPLF, accused government forces of looting Mekelle.
Getachew Reda told TPLF TV that troops and militiamen who captured Mekelle were looting public homes, hotels and factories, and harming civilians and their property.
The Ethiopian government has not yet commented on the allegations. Communication, internet and telephone, and it are difficult to know the real situation and what is happening in Tigray region.
On the other hand, Col. Shambel Beyene In an interview with Ethiopian Federal Government Radio, said that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces are only 10 km away from the TPLF leaders’ hideout, which he said is near the capital, Tigray.
Human rights groups, meanwhile, have warned of genocide in the area, having already confirmed genocide and abuses during the conflict, and calling that the government will restore Internet telecommunications services and that agrees that the benefits of local and visiting media to determine the facts. But the government of Ethiopia already rejected applications, has moved to accept the report, instead, it faces international criticism from the Ethiopian government the international community.
Fighting has been raging since early November 2020, between federal government forces led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and is believed to have killed thousands of people and displaced 46,000 refugees Fled fighting in neighboring Sudan.
