Ethiopian troops retake strategic towns in Tigray region

ADDIS ABABA - The Ethiopian National Defense Forces ENDF] has retaken most towns in the northern region of Tigray, officials said, just days after the Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] started formal engagement with Addis Ababa, following a peace deal in South Africa.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's senior national security advisor Redwan Hussien said over 70% of the Tigray region is now under federal troops. The national army has been struggling to access Tigray following a determined fight back by TPLF.

According to that official, over 35 trucks carrying food and medicine had been dispatched to the most affected towns in the state, adding that Shire town is targeted given that it hosts most of the displaced families. The official insists services are being reconnected in Tigray.

“Aid is flowing like no other time,” said Redwan.

Spokespersons for the International Committee for the Red Cross and the World Food Program were not able to immediately confirm Redwan’s comments, which came as representatives from the federal governments in Tigray met in Nairobi to discuss the implementation of a cease-fire deal struck in South Africa on November 2.

The deal signed in Pretoria requires the federal forces to control airports and crucial border points in the Tigray region. Further, the deal requires at least 200,000 Tigray People's Liberation Front fighters to be disarmed for the sake of peace and stability in the Tigray region.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department's Bureau for African Affairs said that Ethiopians in Tigray and the nearby Amhara and Afar regions “need aid now.”

“Redwan Hussein said in Nairobi that by week’s end humanitarian aid would flow unhindered as agreed in Pretoria,” the bureau said on Twitter, adding that it was “[w]aiting urgently for actions to respect and implement the agreement.”

Last week, the teams met in Nairobi under the leadership of former President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, who is working closely with the African Union special envoy to the Horn of Africa Olusegun Obasanjo in solving the conflict. Thousands of people are believed to have died in the conflict which started in November 2020.

GAROWE ONLINE