Ethiopië dreigt de regionale hoofdstad te bombarderen

BY JORDI BOU

November 25, 2020 – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has rebuffed growing international calls for dialogue as a deadline for Tigray forces to surrender passes and the army prepares to bombard the regional capital, Mekelle.

The government led by Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, has warned Mekele’s half-million residents to move away from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front leaders or there will be “no mercy”.

But communications remain almost completely severed to the Tigray region of some 6 million people, and is not clear how many people in Mekele are aware of the warnings and the threat of artillery fire.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people have been killed in three weeks of fighting. More than 40,000 refugees have fled into Sudan. And nearly 100,000 Eritrean refugees at camps in northern Tigray have come close to the line of fire.