Tigray official urges rebels to disarm after Mekelle falls; commander vows to fight on
An official in Tigray's newly formed federally backed administration has urged rebel fighters to lay down their arms and return home, hours after a rebel commander ordered his forces to keep fighting following the fall of the regional capital, Mekelle.
The call on Friday came hours after Lieutenant General Fisseha Kidanu, identified as commander of the Tigray army, told his fighters to continue resisting on Tigray Broadcast Media, a new rebel television station, vowing to reverse recent military setbacks.
In early October, fighters from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) were forced to withdraw from Mekelle 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. Mekelle residents reported a drone strike on Tuesday that they said killed four people and injured six others as they loaded goats onto a truck. 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.
For his part, Fisseha Kidanu, without disclosing his location, urged attacks on government-held positions despite his opponents' advantages in drones and heavy weapons.
'Local militias across the region — alongside all volunteers joining the resistance — are expected to engage the enemy,' he said.
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.
On Monday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation that the TPLF was 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 that 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.
What happens next is unclear: whether the caretaker administration's call for peace finds traction on the ground, or whether Fisseha Kidanu's call to keep fighting plunges Tigray into fresh bloodshed.
