Ethiopia announced on the evening of Saturday November 28 that the federal army had taken "control" of Mekele, the regional capital of Tigray, designated as the ultimate offensive in the military operation that began three years ago. weeks in this dissident region.
First, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that the army had "entered" this city which had some 500,000 inhabitants before the start of the conflict.
"We managed to enter the city of Mekele, without targeting innocent civilians," he said in a statement released by Ethiopian official television station EBC.
This statement was immediately followed by that of the army chief, Berhanu Jula, who said in a message broadcast on the same media that "the government forces are in complete control of Mekele".
Berhanu Jula also claims that the army is "hunting TPLF members who are in hiding."
When contacted, the TPLF could not be contacted immediately.
A "last phase" of intervention
Verification on the ground and from an independent source of the assertions of either side is difficult, as Tigray has been virtually cut off from the world since the start of the conflict.
On Thursday, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered the army to initiate the "last phase" of the intervention started on November 4, targeting Mekele, the stronghold of the leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) , which he fights.
After 48 hours when nothing was filtering out the situation there, the Tigrayan authorities said earlier on Saturday that "heavy weapon fire" had hit the regional capital, where they are entrenched.
"The next key issues are to know what intentions and what capacities the Tigrayan forces have to continue the armed resistance", declared after the announcement William Davison, of the International Crisis Group (ICG).
He also wonders how the Tigrayans will "react to the provisional government that will be installed" by Addis Ababa.
No precise record of the fighting is so far available, but the ICG estimated Friday that "several thousand people have died in the fighting".
Tensions between Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF, which dominated Ethiopia's political and security apparatus for nearly three decades, have grown steadily since the prime minister came to power in 2018.
> Read also: The Ethiopian army continues its offensive in Tigray despite calls for de-escalation
They culminated with the organization in Tigray in September of a regional election described as "illegitimate" by Addis Ababa, then with the attack in early November on two bases of the federal army attributed to TPLF forces, which denies this last.
With AFP
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