ETHIOPIA SAYS 10,000 PRISONERS MISSING AFTER GOVERNMENT FORCES SEIZES TOWN IN TIGRAY

Mon 16 November 2020:

Thousands of Ethiopian refugees have continued pouring into Sudan, escaping a worsening conflict that has spilled over Ethiopia’s borders and threatens to destabilise the wider Horn of Africa region.

The United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday that more than 20,000 people have crossed into Sudan from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where federal government troops are battling forces loyal to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the party of the regional government. Sudanese state media put the number of refugees at almost 25,000.

The government’s emergency taskforce said late on Sunday, accusing local leaders of taking 10,000 prisoners from the town as they fled.

“As the TPLF (Tigray’s ruling party) militia were defeated in Alamata, they fled taking along around 10,000 prisoners,” the government’s taskforce said on Twitter.

The ENDF have liberated the town of Alamata in Raya from the TPLF junta. As the TPLF militia were defeated in Alamata, they fled taking along around 10,000 prisoners. Residents say many youth above the age of 14 had already fled the area for fear of being recruited by TPLF. 1/2

— Ethiopia State of Emergency Fact Check (@SOEFactCheck) November 15, 2020

There was no immediate comment from Tigray’s leaders on the events in Alamata, a town near the border with Amhara regional state, about 120 km (75 miles) from Tigray’s capital Mekelle.

The U.S. State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, denounced the attacks by Tigrayan forces on Eritrea, calling them “efforts to internationalize the conflict” in Tigray.

Debretsion Gebremichael, Tigray’s regional president, has accused Eritrea of sending tanks and thousands of troops into his region in support of the Ethiopian government’s offensive.

Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed told Reuters last week that his country was not involved in the conflict.

The TPLF said on Sunday that his forces fired a volley of rockets at neighbouring Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, late on Saturday. Debretsion Gebremichael also claimed that 16 Eritrean military divisions are fighting alongside the Ethiopian government troops against the TPLF forces – an assertion that both the governments in Addis Ababa and Asmara have denied.

“Those who attack Tigray will not just attack and return home. We will retaliate while they are here, and strike the airports from which they launched attacks,” said Debretsion. “There is no place that we can’t reach and we will continue to attack selected targets that the invading forces are using against us.”

As fighting in Tigray intensifies, ethnic profiling and massacres have been reported and both sides have faced accusations of committing atrocities, forcing thousands to flee to Sudan amid the unfolding humanitarian disaster.

Axel Bisschop, UNHCR representative in Sudan, said half of the more than 20,000 people seeking refuge are children.

“Many people are coming without anything. They don’t have any means of actually surviving so we have to take care of them,” he told Al Jazeera, describing an “urgent” situation that required international attention to address the growing needs for food and purified water.

📢 On Saturday, the numbers of refugees crossing into Sudan from #Ethiopia 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝟮𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬.

Medical staff from clinics in Tigray assist other refugees 🩺 Sudanese communities provide food and tents 🍲 while UNHCR & partners are ramping up support 🏃 pic.twitter.com/82BV1uEgHk

— UNHCR in Sudan (@UNHCRinSudan) November 15, 2020

Abiy launched the campaign in Tigray on Nov. 4 after accusing local forces of attacking federal troops based in the northern state, which borders Eritrea and Sudan and is home to some 5 million people.

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