ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia's government announced Monday
it had recaptured two strategic towns from rebel fighters, the latest in a
rapid series of battlefield victories claimed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's
administration.
اضافة اعلان
Dessie and Kombolcha lie in the Amhara region on a key
highway to Addis Ababa, and their reported capture by the Tigray People's
Liberation Force (TPLF) in late October had sparked fears the rebels would be
marching on the capital.
"The historic Dessie city and the trade and industry
corridor city Kombolcha have been freed by the joint gallant security
forces," the government's communications service said on Twitter.
On Wednesday, the government announced that its forces had
recaptured the UNESCO World Heritage site of Lalibela, which had fallen to TPLF
fighters in August.
The latest territorial gains claimed by Abiy's government
mark another sharp shift in the 13-month war in the north of Africa's second
most populous nation.
Abiy announced last month that he would be heading to the
battleground following a series of reported advances by the rebels, as fighting
reportedly raged on at least three fronts.
Since Abiy's declaration, the government has announced the
recapture of several small towns, including Lalibela which is famed for its
12th-century rock-hewn churches.
In a statement on Sunday, TPLF leader Debretsion
Gebremichael denied the government was scoring major victories, saying the
rebels were making strategic territorial adjustments and remained undefeated.
'Widespread arrests'
The conflict, which erupted in November 2020, saw a dramatic
turnaround at the end of October this year, when the TPLF claimed to have
captured Dessie and Kombolcha, which lie about 400km northeast of the capital.
Since then, speculation of a rebel march on Addis Ababa has
prompted countries such as the US, France, Britain to urge their citizens to
leave Ethiopia as soon as possible.
The government has described the gains by the TPLF as
overstated and insisted that the capital city of more than 5 million people is
secure.
The war broke out when Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize
winner, sent troops into Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region to topple the
TPLF.
He said the move was in response to attacks on army camps by
the TPLF, and vowed a swift victory.
But the rebels mounted a shock comeback, recapturing most of
Tigray by June including the capital Mekele before expanding into the
neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.
The fighting has killed thousands of people, displaced more
than two million and driven hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions,
according to UN estimates.
There have also been reports of massacres and mass rapes by
both sides.
But so far, a flurry of diplomatic efforts led by the
African Union to try to reach a ceasefire has failed to achieve any
breakthrough.
Earlier Monday, the US and Western allies sounded the alarm
over reports the Ethiopian government has unlawfully detained large numbers of
citizens on ethnic grounds.
"We ... are profoundly concerned by recent reports of
the Ethiopian government's detention of large numbers of Ethiopian citizens on
the basis of their ethnicity and without charge," said a joint statement
issued by the US State Department.
Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain joined
the US in urging the Ethiopian government to "cease immediately" the
arrests, saying "many of these acts likely constitute violations of
international law".
"Individuals are being arrested and detained without
charges or a court hearing and are reportedly being held in inhumane
conditions."
The statement cited reports by the Ethiopian Human Rights
Commission and Amnesty International, which "describe widespread arrests
of ethnic Tigrayans," including the elderly and young children.
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