Tigray rebels urged to disarm as commander vows to fight Ethiopia’s gov’t

Rebel commander pledged to continue fighting government-allied forces who seized Ethiopia’s Tigray capital.

An official in Tigray’s new federally backed administration has urged rebel forces to lay down their weapons in the northern Ethiopian region.

The call on Friday came hours after a rebel commander told his fighters to continue resisting government-backed forces despite losing control of Mekelle, the Tigray region’s capital.

Fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) were forced to withdraw from Mekelle in early October, after government-allied fighters entered the city to crush a rebel attempt to overthrow Ethiopia’s government.

Ethiopia’s government then installed a six-month caretaker administration in Tigray, promising to restore services, help displaced people return and prepare for elections.

But some fighting has continued, with Mekelle residents reporting a drone strike that killed four people and injured six others as they loaded goats onto a truck on Tuesday. The casualties could not be independently verified.

Redae Halefom Woldeselassie, a senior official in Tigray’s new caretaker administration, said rebel forces were collapsing and urged fighters to lay down their weapons.

“This is not the time for settling scores – I call upon you to return to your homes and continue your civilian lives,” he said in Mekelle.

He dismissed the prospect of the rebels retaking the city, maintaining the conflict served a small clique of leaders and not the people of Tigray.

Hours earlier, Lieutenant General Fisseha Kidanu, who was identified in a television broadcast as commander of the Tigray army, pledged to reverse recent military setbacks, saying Tigray was still at war.

“Local militias across the region – alongside all volunteers joining the resistance – are expected to engage the enemy,” he said Thursday on Tigray Broadcast Media, a new rebel television station. His location was not disclosed.

Fisseha urged attacks on government-held positions despite his opponents’ advantages in drones and heavy weapons. The TPLF has also claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on government forces. The Associated Press could not independently verify those claims.

The government’s allies include the Tigray Peace Force, comprising former members of the TPLF’s armed wing – a division within Tigrayan forces that has complicated the renewed conflict.

Redae said Ethiopian troops and allied forces were conducting joint security operations, including measures to prevent looting. He promised preparations for displaced residents to return but gave no timetable.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, speaking Monday to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, accused the TPLF of forcibly recruiting young people to fight instead of disarming under the terms of the November 2022 Pretoria peace agreement.

The renewed fighting has effectively shattered the agreement, which ended the region’s devastating 2020-2022 war.

That conflict caused an estimated 500,000 civilian deaths through violence, famine and collapsed health services, according to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium.