(Nairobi) Tigrayan rebels on Sunday regained control of Lalibela, an iconic city in northern Ethiopia that is home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, eleven days after the government announced it had seized it.
Residents contacted by AFP on Sunday afternoon said that fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had entered this town in the Amhara region.
“They are in the city center, there was no fighting,” said one resident. Another said: “They came back. They are already there ”.
1er December, the government announced that it had taken over Lalibela, a town famous for its 12th-century monolithic churches, which had come under rebel control in August.
Communications are cut off in combat zones and journalists’ access is restricted, making it difficult to independently verify positions on the ground. The government did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests.
AFP visited the town last week, when it was secured by Amhara special forces and fighters from the Amhara Fano militia.
According to the second witness interviewed on Sunday, these pro-government forces have moved south towards Gashena, where fighting has been reported in recent days.
Earlier in the day on Sunday, a statement from the military leadership of the TPLF announced that its fighters had “carried out comprehensive counter-offensives” at several points, notably along the road between Lalibela and Gashena, located about sixty miles away. kilometers to the south.
“Our forces first defended and then led counter-offensives against the enormous force which was attacking the Gashena front and the surrounding areas and succeeded in achieving a glorious and unexpected victory”, adds the text.
” Fear ”
In Lalibela on Sunday, “most people are afraid,” said one of the residents interviewed: “Some are running away. Most people have already left because there might be some revenge. We expressed our happiness when (the TPLF) left ”.
The government has been carrying out a “counter-offensive” in recent weeks to regain ground from the rebels, which it has been fighting for more than a year in northern Ethiopia.
War erupted in November 2020 after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the army to the northern Tigray region to remove local authorities from the TPLF who challenged his authority and accused him of having attacked military bases.
Abiy Ahmed proclaimed victory three weeks later, after the capture of the regional capital Mekele.
But in June, the TPLF retook most of Tigray, then advanced into the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, where they claimed in early November to have captured the towns of Dessie and Kombolcha, a strategic crossroads on the road. leading to the capital.
On November 25, Abiy Ahmed announced that he would go to the front in person to lead the “counter-offensive”.
The government has since announced that it has taken back land and several towns, including Dessie, Kombolcha and Lalibela.
The TPLF claims not to have been defeated militarily but to have made strategic withdrawals to reorganize.
Abiy returns to the front
Returned to Addis Ababa on Wednesday, Abiy Ahmed returned to the front lines, the Prime Minister’s office announced in a tweet on Saturday evening.
The government said in this tweet the takeover of several areas of Afar and Amhara. He announced in particular to have “cut the main highway” between the city of Woldiya and Mekele.
More than 13 months of conflict have ravaged northern Ethiopia and left 9.4 million people “in critical food assistance” in Tigray, Afar and Amhara, according to the UN.
The UN estimates that 5.2 million people are in need of emergency food aid in Tigray, 3.7 million in Amhara and 534,000 in Afar.