Ethiopia's prime minister returns to Addis Ababa after two weeks on the frontline
The Ethiopian Armed Forces' breakthrough in rebel-held territory has prompted Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to return to Addis Ababa for a period of time. "After the end of the first chapter of this war, I am now back in office for a while," Abiy Ahmed said in a statement he posted on his social media.
Abiy Ahmed decided to move to the war front on 23 October to, according to his statement, "defend the country from internal and external enemies", calling also for Ethiopians to join the Armed Forces and confront the Tigray rebels. During this time, Abiy Ahmed had relegated his duties to the deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnen.
The conflict in Ethiopia has taken a major turn in the past month, after Tigray rebels advanced from the north, seizing several cities and even threatening the capital, Addis Ababa. The TPLF's momentum was countered in recent weeks by the Ethiopian Armed Forces' offensive, taking such important and strategic towns as Dese and Kombolcha, and advancing as far as Shewa Robi, 220 kilometres from Addis Ababa.
Despite this, statements by representatives of the federal government and the Tigray Liberation Front for the Liberation of Tigray show that the war will not stop. Abiy Ahmed added in his statement that the Ethiopian army will fight "until our enemies are exhausted". For his part, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael predicted that the fighting against the Ethiopian army will continue in the coming weeks, saying that his enemy "is on the verge of defeat".
This war began in November 2020 in the Tigray region, when Abiy Ahmed ordered a military offensive in retaliation for the TPLF's attack on the army in Mekelle. An offensive that was the tip of the icerberg after several months of tension over the elections held later that year, in which Abiy Ahmed won a landslide victory thanks to the non-participation of the people of Tigray.
The war has forced thousands of people to move to other parts of the country and many others to cross the border to refugee camps in Sudan in the hope of returning when the situation improves. Also, millions of people across the country are already suffering from food shortages due to the communications blockade. The victims of the conflict cannot be counted to this day either because of the federal government's control of information.
The UN has already accused all parties to the conflict of committing war crimes, denouncing killings, extrajudicial executions, torture, sexual violence and forced displacement of civilians. Since the beginning of the conflict, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an unconditional ceasefire.
The UN also continues to highlight the looting of humanitarian aid in the region of Tigray, Amhara and Afar, especially in the towns of Dese and Kombolcha, where another assault took place on Monday. The UN Secretary General's spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, has denounced the looting of large supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP). According to data from the Food Security Group in Ethiopia, there are more than 9 million people in these regions, figures that will continue to rise due to the boycott and communications cut-off caused by the war.
