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- CORRESPONDENTS
Nairobi, Kenya
Reuters
Ethiopian government forces and their allies on Monday captured Shire, one of the largest towns in the northern Tigray region, from regional forces they have been fighting since late 2020, two diplomatic and humanitarian sources said.
The violence in Tigray, which has spread to neighboring regions and drawn in the Eritrean army, has killed thousands of civilians, uprooted millions and left hundreds of thousands more facing possible starvation.
A woman walks past the rubble of a building damaged by fighting in the town of Shire, Tigray region, Ethiopia, March 17, 2021. PHOTO: Reuters/Baz Ratne
The conflict stems from grievances rooted in periods of Ethiopia’s turbulent past, when particular regional power blocs dominated the entire country, and tensions over the balance of power between the regions and the central state.
Shire is about 140 kilometers northwest of Tigray’s regional capital, Mekelle, and hosts tens of thousands of people displaced from other regions by the conflict.
Just as news of Shire’s capture broke, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to hostilities in Tigray and a return to African Union-sponsored peace talks.
Guterres told reporters that the United Nations stood ready to support the bloc in any way possible to end the “nightmare” of the Ethiopian people.
The European Union has declared that the joint offensive by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces should cease immediately and that the Eritreans should withdraw from Ethiopian territory. He also urged the Tigray forces to refrain from any further military operations.
Spokespersons for the Ethiopian government and military, Eritrean government and Tigray forces did not respond to requests for comment on the Shire events.
In a post on Twitter, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry referred to “areas liberated and controlled” by the national army, saying the government was ready to guarantee humanitarian access and ensure the safety of aid workers. He did not specify which areas he was referring to.
An aid worker from the International Rescue Committee was among three people killed in an airstrike on Shire on Friday.
On Sunday, Samantha Power, director of the US development agency USAID, said there was a significant risk of attacks on civilians if the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies took control of camps housing displaced civilians.
In September, a UN human rights commission said it had reasonable grounds to believe that war crimes had been committed by forces from both sides in the conflict, all of whom denied committing crimes. abuses.
Earlier on Monday, the Ethiopian government said it intended to seize airports and other infrastructure currently under the control of Tigray forces, although it said it had pledged to peaceful resolution of the conflict through peace talks.
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Authorities in Tigray said on Sunday their forces would observe an immediate truce and said a “humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding.
Both sides blame each other for breaking a ceasefire in August that had lasted since March.
Peace talks proposed earlier this month in South Africa have been delayed with no new date announced.
Western and African diplomats have said they fear the fighting in Tigray could further delay the start of any substantive talks. They also said the involvement of Eritrean troops was a major problem and it was unclear whether the Ethiopian government had any control over its ally’s forces.