Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled the conflict in Tigray

Africa

Ethiopia says Eritrean troops have ‘started to evacuate’ Tigray

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, April 4 — Ethiopia said Saturday that Eritrean troops fighting in its conflict-hit Tigray region had “started to evacuate,” one day after the G7 group of leading nations called for their rapid withdrawal. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced last week that the Eritrean forces would leave Tigray, in the north of the country, just three days after finally acknowledging their presence amid mounting reports of massacres and widespread sexual violence.

But residents of some Tigray cities and towns have continued to report the presence of Eritrean soldiers in recent days, and the G7 said in a statement Friday that their exit “must be swift, unconditional and verifiable”.

In a response posted online Saturday night, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said that process had begun.

“As announced last week, the Eritrean troops who had crossed the border when provoked by the TPLF have now started to evacuate,” the statement said, adding that Ethiopia’s military had now “taken over guarding the national border.”

The TPLF is the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, former ruling party in Tigray that dominated national politics in Ethiopia for nearly three decades before Abiy took power in 2018.

Abiy sent troops into Tigray in November, a move he said came in response to TPLF-orchestrated attacks on federal army camps. 

Addis Ababa and Asmara long denied Eritreans were active in Tigray at all, contradicting testimony from residents, rights groups, aid workers, diplomats and even some Ethiopian civilian and military officials.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have accused Eritrean troops of massacring hundreds of people in the Tigrayan town of Axum in November. 

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

AFP has separately documented a massacre allegedly carried out by Eritrean troops in the town of Dengolat, also in November.

Tigray’s interim leader, Mulu Nega, told AFP this week that withdrawal was “a process” and would not happen immediately.

About The Author

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News