Renewed fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has effectively shattered the 2022 Pretoria accord, the Associated Press reported Friday, as a caretaker official urged disarmament and a rebel commander called for resistance.
An estimate by researchers at Belgium’s Ghent University puts civilian deaths in the 2020-22 war at 500,000. They attributed the toll to violence, famine and failures in health services. The Pretoria accord ended that conflict.
Mekelle residents told the AP that a Tuesday drone strike killed four people and injured six as goats were being loaded onto a truck.
Government-allied forces entered Mekelle in early October, forcing TPLF fighters to withdraw, AP reported. Ethiopia’s government then installed a six-month caretaker administration and promised to restore services, assist displaced residents returning home and prepare for elections. The TPLF rejected the caretaker administration and vowed to keep fighting after the city fell, EconoTimes previously reported.
Redae Halefom Woldeselassie, a senior official in Tigray’s federally backed caretaker administration, described rebel forces as losing ground and asked fighters to resume civilian life. “This is not the time for settling scores,” he said in Mekelle. Woldeselassie argued that the conflict benefited a small group of leaders rather than Tigray’s people.
A television broadcast identified Lieutenant General Fisseha Kidanu as commander of the Tigray army, AP reported. On Thursday, he called on local militias and volunteers to attack government-held positions, despite government forces’ advantage in drones and heavy weapons. AP described Tigray Broadcast Media as a new rebel television station and said it aired his remarks.
Speaking to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the TPLF of forcing young people into its ranks instead of disarming under the Pretoria agreement. The caretaker administration is expected to prepare for elections, but no election date was announced. Woldeselassie gave no timetable for displaced residents to return.
