Worthy Christian News > World News > Ethiopia Rebels “Retake” Town Despite Government Victory Claims

Ethiopia Rebels “Retake” Town Despite Government Victory Claims

By Stefan J. Bos, Special Correspondent Worthy News

(Worthy News) – Rebel forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region say they have retaken a town and shot down a military plane in a setback for the national government.

There was no immediate comment from the government over the claims made by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). But their announcement came after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced his forces took “full control” of troubled Tigray and its capital over the weekend.

“We took control of Pagak…government forces are not in Pagak, we have pushed them out,” TPLF spokesman Lam Paul Gabriel said.

However, Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader earlier said the military’s offensive had been completed and ceased. That includes capturing the ancient city of Axum, where the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church believes the church of Our Lady Mary of Zion hosts the original Ark of the Covenant.

As they retreated, TPLF forces damaged the Axum airport and destroyed bridges leading into Mekele, Christians said. “There was a lot of confusion,” a Christian ex-pat working in the Tigray town of Shire, near the border with Eritrea, told the respected Christianity Today website.

HIDING IN HOMES

Evacuated by the United Nations last week, he asked to remain anonymous to protect his work there. “That first day was the worst because people were killed, shot, and beat. We heard soldiers trying to hide in homes, and other soldiers trying to find them.”

“Soldiers in our church were killed,” he added. Though the Tigray region is 95 percent Orthodox, many federal troops stationed there are from other Ethiopia areas where Protestantism is more common, Christians said. “One deacon was captured and imprisoned, and two other [members] were killed because they were in the airport defense,” the ex-pat claimed.

There were reports that Ethiopia’s federal police were still searching for the TPLF leaders involved in the violence. The army also freed thousands of soldiers taken prisoner by the TPLF, officials said.

For weeks the prime minister had vowed to “liberate” Tigray after TPLF forces loyal to the Tigrayan leadership reportedly attacked a federal military base.

The fighting was accompanied by many atrocities, according to aid workers and rights activists. Over the last few weeks, thousands reputedly died, and more than 40,000 refugees have fled to Sudan.

SEVERAL MASSACRES REPORTED

And this month, rights group Amnesty International reported that “scores and probably hundreds” of civilians were in the Tigray region. Witnesses blamed the ruling TPLF for the bloodshed.

They said the TPLF carried out the massacre after Ethiopia’s government troops defeated them in the Lugdi area. Analysts had warned the week-old conflict between federal forces, and the TPLF threatens to destabilize Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa.

The conflict is also about cohesion among Ethiopia’s 115 million people. Clashes between different ethnic groups killed hundreds of people since Prime Minister Abiy took office in 2018.

Christians are often singled out for attacks. Previously this year, Muslim militants killed hundreds of Christians, including pregnant women, children, and whole families in Ethiopia’s most populous regional state of Oromia, aid workers told Worthy News.

Critics suggested that the violence challenged Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy’s pledged peaceful reforms. The 44-year-old Pentecostal Christian came to power promising real democracy. He also promoted women’s rights and feverishly planted trees across his vast country, snapping up the Nobel Peace Prize last year.