Ethiopia warns Tigray people: Anything can happen

Ethiopia's government is again warning residents of the besieged capital of the embattled Tigray region as the clock ticks on a 72-hour ultimatum before a military assault, saying "anything can happen". Senior official Redwan Hussein told reporters on Monday that the Tigray regional leaders are "hiding out in a densely populated city; the slightest strike would end up losing lives".

Human rights groups and others were alarmed over the weekend when Ethiopia's military warned civilians in the Tigray capital, Mekele, that there would be "no mercy" if they don't "save themselves" before the offensive to flush out defiant regional leaders.Amnesty International warns that deliberately attacking civilians and civilian objects is prohibited under international humanitarian law and also constitutes war crimes.

Ethiopia's Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) to surrender.

Redwan said that Mekele, a city of some half-million people, is now encircled at a distance of some 50 kilometres (31 miles). Ethiopia's government is urging Mekele residents to separate themselves from the TPLF leaders in time. The heavily-armed TPLF dominated Ethiopia's ruling coalition for more than a quarter century before Abiy came to power and introduced sweeping political reforms and sidelined TPLF officials.

Now, each government sees the other as illegal, with the TPLF objecting to the delay of national elections because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Abiy's government infuriated by the Tigray region defiantly holding its own vote in September.

Civilians are caught in the middle of what some experts have described as a conflict akin to an inter-state war. The TPLF alone has been estimated to have a quarter-million fighters.