Government soldiers seized control of a key city in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray on Monday after days of airstrikes and an artillery barrage, according to a diplomat who spoke to witnesses, accelerating an exodus of civilians amid some of the most intense fighting since a five-month cease-fire was shattered in August.
Thousands of terrified inhabitants fearing a repeat of previous atrocities — including gang rapes and mass killings — began streaming out of the opposition-held city of Shire over the weekend, said an aid worker who was among a group of people evacuated from the city.
He said the wealthy bought bus tickets — prices have shot up from $6.60 to nearly $100 — and crowds of poor families trudged along the highway, carrying children on their shoulders who were at times startled awake by the sound of distant explosions. As buses pushed through crowds, families banged on the windows, begging drivers to take pregnant women or crying children, he said. The aid worker and some others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The renewed hostilities, pitting Tigrayan forces against the Ethiopian military and its Eritrean allies, have triggered fresh anxieties among diplomats that Africa’s second-most-populous nation will remain mired in a long, devastating war that will further destabilize the already volatile Horn of Africa region.
“The situation in Ethiopia is spiraling out of control. The social fabric is being ripped apart & civilians are paying a horrific price,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres wrote Monday on Twitter after the news that Shire had fallen. “Hostilities in Tigray must end now — including the immediate withdrawal and disengagement of Eritrean armed forces from Ethiopia.”
Shire had been held by forces from Tigray, which have been fighting Ethiopia’s central government for nearly two years, and is home to about 100,000 residents and another 60,000 people who have fled hostilities elsewhere. The city is a strategic crossroads and the gateway to the main highway leading into Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, from the west. Its airport could also be used by Ethiopian forces to significantly extend the range and time in the air of their drones.
A Western diplomat estimated that about 87,500 Ethiopian soldiers and 25,000 to 60,000 Eritrean soldiers are engaged in the latest hostilities. Information from hospitals indicated about 5,000 soldiers have been killed in this latest round of fighting, said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Less information is coming from Tigrayan-controlled territory, where there have not been working phone connections for more than a year. A humanitarian worker said trucks packed with wounded were coming from the front line into Tigray earlier this month.
On Monday, the Ethiopian government issued a statement saying it aimed to take control of airports and other infrastructure in Tigray, adding that unnamed “hostile foreign actors” had been violating Ethiopian airspace.
“The [Ethiopian National Defense Forces] strictly abides by all pertinent norms and principles of international humanitarian law,” the statement added. “Strict instructions have been given to all combat units to reinforce this commitment.” It did not mention Eritrean troops, which have been blamed for many previous abuses.
The government also said it was ready to ensure humanitarian access in areas controlled by the Ethiopian military.
With fighting now flaring on three fronts — to the north, west and south — many Tigrayans fear for their survival.
“People say if they come here, there will be no mercy,” one resident of Shire wrote on WhatsApp to The Washington Post. That fear is driving young people to join forces commanded by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that controls Tigray, he said, after a period earlier this year when many sought to avoid having to fight and were forcibly conscripted.
During the first eight months of the war, when Ethiopian and Eritrean troops controlled most of Tigray, the United Nations, international rights groups and journalists documented many mass killings of civilians and gang rapes, including in small villages. At the time, Ethiopia said that reports of atrocities were exaggerated, although the government acknowledged it had arrested some soldiers for various crimes.
Eritrea has always denied committing war crimes despite extensive documentation of abuses by rights groups and journalists. For months at the beginning of the conflict, both countries repeatedly denied that Eritrean troops were even in Tigray.
Tigrayan forces have also committed gang rapes and killed civilians when they pushed into neighboring regions, although not on the same scale, the United Nations has said.
Eritrea — often referred to as “the North Korea of Africa” — has not commented publicly on the fighting. Constant state surveillance and repression of dissidents make it hard to speak to fearful residents inside the country. But diplomats and exiles with family members inside Eritrea say it has significantly ramped up enforced military recruitment, including of men over 50 years old.
Citizens who flee Eritrea can expect to see their families punished, said Mussie Zerai, an exiled Eritrean priest who works with refugees. He said that in one case he had confirmed, soldiers had pulled worshipers out of church and marched them off at gunpoint.
An Eritrean woman living in exile told The Post that police had come to her father’s house several times three weeks ago, seeking to force her 45-year-old brother to join the military. Her brother had hidden with friends, only enlisting after their father was threatened with jail, she said. Her female cousin, 27, had joined up after local authorities threatened to lock up her parents’ house, leaving them homeless, she said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect her family from reprisals.
Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not return calls seeking comment.
Previous attempts at peace talks have stalled. The United States brokered a meeting between Ethiopian and TPLF officials in Seychelles and twice in Djibouti earlier this year, after the government declared a humanitarian cease-fire that finally allowed more food aid to reach the starving region.
But aid groups were not permitted to deliver many desperately needed medicines or the fuel required for aid distribution. Phone lines, banking services and electricity, which were cut when Ethiopian and Eritrean troops pulled out more than a year ago, were also not restored.
At the end of August, TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael issued a stark warning that Tigray could either fight or starve. Days later, fighting resumed.
The United States is backing an African Union-led process, and both parties have said they would attend talks. But despite a public invitation earlier this month for the two sides to meet in South Africa, the A.U. appears to have made few logistical or diplomatic preparations for talks, diplomats said. It’s also unclear if Eritrea would be included.
On Friday, a drone strike in Shire killed a member of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an aid worker said. The IRC said the aid worker was killed and a colleague was wounded while delivering humanitarian assistance. Two civilians were also killed. At least 26 aid workers have been killed since the war in Tigray began, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Earlier this month, another drone strike on a civilian convoy near the town of Adi Daero killed more than 60 people, the aid worker from Shire said.
He said his friend’s father had been among the dead. The family was unable to identify him because he was so badly disfigured. “They couldn’t even find his face,” he said.
Ethiopian military spokesman Col. Getnet Adane did not return calls or messages seeking comment on the strikes, but the government on Monday said it “deeply regrets” any harm to civilians or humanitarian personnel and promised to investigate.