Is the breakaway region of Tigray really under control?

Rockets were fired on the evening of Saturday, November 28 from Tigray at the capital of neighboring Eritrea, Asmara, according to diplomatic sources.

These shots come a few hours after the Ethiopian government claimed to "control" this dissident region of Ethiopia, including its capital Mekele.

On Sunday morning, it was still not possible to independently verify whether the city was totally under the control of the Federal Army.

A spokesperson said that operations were going "very well" there.

Mekele, a city of 500,000 inhabitants, is also the bastion of the Tigrayan leaders, from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), against whom the Ethiopian government has been carrying out a military operation since November 4 aimed at replacing them with "institutions". legitimate ".

The fall of the regional capital was a major objective of the "last phase" of the military intervention, which also includes the arrest of the Tigrayan leaders, now "hunted" by the army and unreachable on Sunday.

Six explosions in Asmara, capital of Eritrea

However, Tigray fired a series of rockets on Saturday evening at Asmara, capital of Eritrea, a neighboring country hated by the TPLF, diplomatic sources said on Sunday.

“At approximately 10:13 pm on November 28 there were six explosions in Asmara,” the US Embassy in Eritrea wrote on its website on Sunday. 

Two Addis Ababa-based diplomats said several rockets targeted the Eritrean capital, located about 130 kilometers north of Tigray, on Saturday evening, apparently targeting the airport and military installations.

No details were provided on any casualties or damage.

This is the third time that Asmara, already targeted Friday evening and mid-November, has been targeted by rockets fired from Tigray. 

The TPLF claimed responsibility for the first shot, accusing Eritrea of ​​helping the Ethiopian army, but did not comment on the next two.

Neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea reacted.

On Saturday, the Tigrayan authorities said via local television that "heavy weapon fire" hit Mekele, information confirmed to AFP by two humanitarian officials.

Possible "war crimes" in Ethiopia

Hours later, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claimed on Twitter that the military had taken Mekele and "completed and completed military operations in the Tigray region."

I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the #Tigray region.



Our focus now will be on rebuilding the region and providing humanitarian assistance while Federal Police apprehend the TPLF clicks.

#EthiopiaPrevails https://t.co/WrM2BAPCD6

- Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) November 28, 2020

Abiy Ahmed, Nobel Peace Prize winner turned warlord, also assured Saturday in a statement that the army had taken control of the regional administration and was conducting "the operation with the precision and care necessary [...] to ensure that civilians are not targeted ".

"We now have before us the critical task of rebuilding what has been destroyed, of repairing what has been damaged, of bringing back those who fled, with the main priority being the return to normalcy for the people of the Tigray region. ", he also wrote.   

The international community has been concerned since the start of the conflict about possible "war crimes" in Ethiopia and has tried, unsuccessfully, to pressure Abiy Ahmed to accept mediation.

Analysts are now questioning the reaction of some six million Tigrayans as well as the ability of the TPLF to continue an armed resistance against the federal government.

"We won !'

On Sunday, no images of Mekele, even on official Ethiopian television, were available.

Tigrayan television seems to have completely interrupted its programs. 

Small gatherings took place on Saturday evening in Addis Ababa and Gondar, a city of Amhara, a region neighboring Tigray with which bad relations are historic.

“People were out all night celebrating [Mekele's fall]. They fired in the air until midnight and people were shouting 'we won!' '' Said Edom, a resident of Gondar. 

No precise record of the conflict is yet available, but several thousand people have reportedly died in the fighting, while more than 43,000 Ethiopians have fled to neighboring Sudan. 

>> Read also: The Ethiopian army continues its offensive in Tigray despite calls for de-escalation

With AFP

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