{"id":19902,"date":"2020-11-17T19:41:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T16:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/?p=19902"},"modified":"2020-11-17T19:42:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T16:42:03","slug":"ethiopia-tigray-crisis-abiy-issues-ultimatum-as-civilians-flee-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/17\/ethiopia-tigray-crisis-abiy-issues-ultimatum-as-civilians-flee-fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"ETHIOPIA TIGRAY CRISIS: Abiy issues \u2018Ultimatum\u2019 As Civilians Flee Fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the military operation in the northern Tigray region is entering its “final phase” now that a three-day ultimatum given to fighters to surrender has expired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 27,000 people have so far fled the fighting into neighbouring Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN has said a “full-scale humanitarian crisis” is unfolding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict began almost a fortnight ago as tensions between the federal and regional governments boiled over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fighting broke out after Ethiopia’s government accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls Tigray, of treason and of occupying a military base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TPLF sees the federal government as illegitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN fears the numbers fleeing Ethiopia may be just a fraction of those forced from their homes by the fighting, but for the moment aid agencies have no access to the Tigray region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conflict has also reportedly killed hundreds, but getting information from Tigray is hard as there is a virtual communications blackout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a
At least 4,000 people escaping the Tigray region every day, the UN says<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Regional powers Kenya and Uganda have called for negotiations to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ethiopian government has, however, ruled out talks with the TPLF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What else did Mr Abiy say?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a Facebook post, the prime minister thanked TPLF fighters who, he said, took advantage of the three-day deadline to switch sides but he did not give a number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that his government was “ready to receive and reintegrate our fellow Ethiopians fleeing to neighbouring countries”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How bad is the humanitarian crisis?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, said that “a full-scale humanitarian crisis is unfolding” and thousands were fleeing the fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency was “on stand-by to provide assistance in Tigray when access and security allow” spokesman Babar Baloch told a Geneva news briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There may be massive displacement inside Tigray and that is of course a concern and we try to prepare the best way possible,” Jens Laerke, spokesman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How bad is the violence?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Map\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds have reportedly died in Ethiopia since the fighting began on 4 November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights group  on Monday last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Abiy has accused forces loyal to Tigray’s leaders of carrying out the mass killings. The TPLF has denied involvement, saying it will welcome an independent international investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia’s human rights commission said it would send a team to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are the government and TPLF fighting?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s military and political life for decades before Mr Abiy took office in 2018 and pushed through major reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Mr Abiy dissolved the ruling coalition, made up of several ethnically based regional parties, and merged them into a single, national party, which the TPLF refused to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feud escalated in September, when Tigray held a regional election, defying a nationwide ban on all polls imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Mr Abiy responded by calling the vote illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tigray’s administration sees Mr Abiy’s reforms as an attempt to hand his central government more power and weaken regional states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also resents what it calls the prime minister’s “unprincipled” friendship with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Tigray
Fighting broke out after the federal government accused Tigrayan forces of seizing an army base<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mr Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to bring peace with Eritrea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prime minister believes TPLF officials are undermining his authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Abiy ordered the military operation against the TPLF after he said its fighters had crossed “the last red line”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He accused them of attacking a military camp hosting federal troops on 4 November, calling the action “treasonous”. The TPLF has denied attacking the camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BBC News Africa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said the military operation in the northern Tigray region is entering its “final phase” now that a three-day ultimatum given to fighters to surrender has expired. At least 27,000 people have so far fled the fighting into neighbouring Sudan. The UN has said a “full-scale humanitarian crisis” is unfolding. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":19903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[4365,31,4364],"class_list":["post-19902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-ethiopia","tag-featured","tag-tigray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27983"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19904,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19902\/revisions\/19904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ugmirror.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}