(Nairobi) The rebels of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), who have been facing the Ethiopian federal army for a year, said on Saturday they had taken the strategic town of Dessie, in the Amhara region, neighboring Tigray, which the Ethiopian government denied.
But residents said they saw TPLF fighters in town, from which Ethiopian troops they said withdrew after fighting.
At the same time, the US State Department called on the TPLF “to withdraw from the regions of Amhara and Afar, and to stop its advances around the towns of Dessie and Kombolcha”, about ten km to the south. -is the first.
If it were confirmed, the fall of Dessie, where thousands of people displaced by the fighting in Tigray had converged for months, would constitute a major setback for the Ethiopian authorities, mired for a year in an armed conflict with the TPLF.
“The town of Dessie is under the full control of our forces,” said Kindeya Gebrehiwot, a spokesperson for the TPLF.
“Dessie and its surroundings are still in the hands of our security forces,” responded the Ethiopian government’s communications service.
According to a trader from Dessie, TPLF fighters roamed the streets on Saturday afternoon, as residents crowded into buses to flee south.
“Gone or captured”?
“The city is now calm, people are either at home […], or in the process of fleeing to Kombolcha, ”said this trader, using the only first name of Fantahun.
Earlier, other residents of Dessie, about 400 km north of Addis Ababa, had reported the departure of Ethiopian forces and the entry of the first elements of the TPLF.
“Around 2 am, the Ethiopian soldiers began to leave their positions in the area,” Amir told AFP, who preferred not to give his last name.
According to Mohammed, another resident, TPLF rebels from Tigray “entered when there were no Ethiopian soldiers left.”
“I don’t know if the soldiers left or if they were captured,” he added.
Most of northern Ethiopia is inaccessible to journalists and the information that comes from it is very difficult to independently confirm.
The inhabitants of Dessie had for several days reported troop concentrations in the area, as thousands of people flocked to flee the ongoing fighting in localities further north.
“Within artillery range”
On October 20, the TPLF rebels claimed to be “within artillery range” of Dessie and the president of the Amhara region, Yilkal Kefale, called on the Amhara militiamen the next day to converge on the city to defend it.
Since October 18, the Ethiopian army has carried out a campaign of aerial bombardments on the Tigrayan capital Mekele and its region targeting, according to Addis Ababa, infrastructure used for military purposes by the TPLF.
The latter, however, denounced a series of bombings of civilian populations, which, according to local sources, killed at least fifteen.
Northern Ethiopia has been in the throes of fighting for almost a year. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the federal army to Tigray in early November 2020 to drive out the dissident regional authorities from the TPLF, whom he accuses of orchestrating attacks on military bases.
After effectively ruling Ethiopia for almost 30 years, the TPLF was gradually removed from power when Mr. Abiy became prime minister in 2018 and has continued to challenge the authority of the federal government thereafter.
Mr. Abiy proclaimed victory after the capture of Mekele at the end of November. But in June, the TPLF managed to retake most of the region, including Mekele. The Ethiopian army then largely withdrew, while the TPLF continued its offensive in the neighboring regions of Amhara in the south and Afar in the east.
The hostilities have caused numerous displacements of populations and, according to the United Nations, placed some 400,000 people on the verge of famine.
The major humanitarian organizations regularly denounce the obstacles to the delivery of aid to Tigray, which is subject to what the UN describes as “a de facto blockade”.
“There is no military solution to this conflict and all parties must start negotiations to allow a ceasefire,” said Nick Price, spokesman for the US State Department on Saturday.