Photo credit: AP News
A former Tigray leader now advising Ethiopia’s prime minister on Sunday promised a “visible change” in the region after government-allied units retook Mekelle city following renewed fighting with opposition forces.
The Associated Press reports that Ethiopian Airlines resumed flights to the city of Mekelle on Sunday for the first time since rebels led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front seized the airport on Sept. 23. They withdrew on Oct. 3, when government-allied fighter entered the city.
Renewed fighting in Tigray has undermined the 2022 peace agreement that ended a two-year war, as mounting tensions between Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea have raised fears of a wider conflict.
“I would like to assure you on this occassion that we will bring visible change, a chang e beyond mere hope,” Getachew Reda, an adviser to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, told supporters who greeted him and intelligence chief Redwan Hussein at Mekelle airport. He did not elaborate.
The 2020-2022 war in Tigray caused abiut 500,000 civilian deaths from violence, famine and the collapse of health services, according to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front joined six other opposition groups last month in an alliance seeking to oust Abiy.
UN Sectetary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged all parties to cease hostilities and resume dislogue. He warned that fighting risked further destabilizing the wider region.
Ethiopia told the UN Security Council on Friday that it was taking self-defence measures, accusing Eritrea of sending troops across the border and occupying parts of northern Ethiopia. Ethiopina authorities previously have accused Eritrea of supporting the TPLF, an allegarion Eritrea has denied.
Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh urged the Council to condemn what he called a “deplorable declaration of war” by Ethiopia. His response did not confirm or deny the alleged troop crossings.
