Tigrayan forces retake their capital as Ethiopia’s military withdraws
By Declan Walsh and Simon Marks
MEKELLE, Ethiopia — Eight months after Ethiopia’s army attacked the northern region of Tigray, the civil war has taken a major turn: Tigrayan fighters, now on the offensive, began consolidating control of the regional capital Tuesday (29).
Having marched through the night, a column of Tigrayan reinforcements reached Mekelle just after dawn and were received with a wave of relief and euphoria.
Residents filed from their homes, chanting and cheering, as the fighters walked through the streets — just a dozen in this early group, led by a woman in camouflage, carrying an AK-47 and waving the region’s flag.
“The Woyane have won,” cried jubilant young men who jogged alongside the group, using a term for revolutionaries.
Ethiopian troops had retreated from Mekelle a day earlier after a string of losses to the rebels, known as the Tigray Defence Forces, south and west of Mekelle, and Tigrayan forces began entering the city.
The Ethiopian military has occupied Tigray since November, having invaded in cooperation with Eritrean and militia forces to wrest control from the regional government. The Tigrayan forces spent months regrouping and recruiting new fighters, and then in the past week began a rolling counterattack back toward Mekelle.
For residents, the rebels’ arrival raised hopes for an end to a conflict that has brought months of misery, isolation and atrocities against civilians, including sexual violence.
The Tigrayans’ rapid advance was a significant setback for the government of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who declared when he sent his forces into the restive region last year that the operation would be over in a matter of weeks.
Soldiers belonging to the Ethiopian National Defence Forces were seen leaving Mekelle in vehicles Monday, some of them with looted materials, according to international and aid workers. A senior interim official who had been installed in Tigray by the national government confirmed that Tigrayan forces had entered the city and seized control of the airport and telecommunications network. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals.
Ethiopia’s government said Monday that it had called a unilateral cease-fire in Tigray. It was not immediately clear whether Tigrayan forces had accepted the truce. Although it is difficult to know what is happening on the ground, two international aid officials who had spoken with workers in other towns in northern Tigray said that Eritrean forces had also pulled back Tuesday.
They said employees had reported seeing celebrations in Shire, a town where thousands displaced from Western Tigray settled temporarily after that area was annexed by authorities in the neighboring Amhara region earlier in the conflict. The aid officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Tigrayan rebel forces said they were “following in the footsteps of the fleeing remnants” to bring back full control of the region.
-New York Times