Tigray’s overall security situation is still quite precarious due to ongoing airstrikes and shelling that cause civilian deaths.
The local authorities in Adigrat reported 4,000 internally displaced persons, signaling significant new displacements in Mekelle’s operating regions.
Seventy refugees who were previously residing in Shimelba but migrated to the Shire last week as a result of the shelling in Sheraro have asked UNHCR to transfer them to the camps in Mai Tsebri.
As part of an attempt to put an end to the fighting in the north, the US envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, met with Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister Demeke Mekonnen on Friday in Addis Ababa.
According to the official Ethiopian news agency ENA, the period and schedule of his stay in Ethiopia weren’t made public.
Fighting resumed on August 24 in northern Ethiopia amid the Ethiopian federal army, reinforced by soldiers from the Tigray border regions and the Eritrean military, as well as rebels from the breakaway Tigray region after a five-month ceasefire that sparked expectations for peace negotiations.
Following an earlier visit in September, Mr. Hammer returned on October 3 for 15 days to “reach an early cease of hostilities in northern Ethiopia and facilitate the beginning of peace talks under the auspices of the African Union,” according to the State Department.
Early in October, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government and the rebel leaders in Tigray declared their readiness to attend AU-sponsored negotiations in South Africa; however, according to diplomats, these talks were unable to take place due to organizational and logistical issues.
The Tigrayan rebels and the Ethiopian government were pushed on Wednesday, October 12 by the United States and other Western nations to initiate peace negotiations. Meanwhile, Eritrea was urged to withdraw its forces from northern Ethiopia.
Keep this in mind. A federal army base was attacked by TPLF-aligned militants in November 2020, resulting in soldiers’ deaths and the confiscation of weapons. The latter event has made Human rights organizations accuse the combatants of committing atrocities.