The troops of the rebel authorities of the Ethiopian regional state of Tigray, who have been confronting the Ethiopian federal army since September 23, are leaving en masse on Saturday, October 3, the regional capital Mekele, to which the federal forces are approaching, according to a local journalist cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
At this point, Ethiopian federal forces have not yet entered Mekele, he said, but “TPLF leaders and troops are leaving the city.”
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a political group that ruled Ethiopia for almost three decades until 2018, de facto governs the state of Tigray. He ousted the federally appointed administration in April, openly defying the authority of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
In Mekele, security personnel have disappeared from official buildings and police stations, and members of the rebel authorities’ forces “are seen leaving the city, with their weapons, in vehicles”, described the local journalist in a message to AFP.
See alsoEthiopia: resumption of fighting, Addis Ababa under tension
The noose tightens around Mekele
Friday evening, a Tigrayan militia allied with the federal government claimed to have taken control of Mekele airport, located around ten kilometers from the city. This assertion could not be independently verified.
Telecommunications networks have been extremely disrupted in Tigray since the resumption of hostilities in northern Ethiopia.
Ethiopian federal forces have advanced rapidly in recent days towards Mekele.
On Monday, they entered southern Tigray. On Thursday, they seized the town of Maychew, about a hundred kilometers south of Mekele, according to the Tigrayan militia allied with the federal government. And in recent days, they have recovered all the territories initially conquered by the TPLF in the neighboring state of Afar (east).
The previous conflict between the federal government and the TPLF, extremely destructive in Tigray, was one of the deadliest in recent years in the world, leaving at least 600,000 dead, according to the African Union – an estimate considered low by many observers.
A peace deal silenced the guns in 2022, but some provisions were never implemented, fueling tensions. Since August, Ethiopian drones have repeatedly struck military targets in Tigray, from where the TPLF had expelled the federally appointed administration in April, openly defying the authority of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
With AFP
