Ethiopia’s Tigray Forces Say They Freed 1,000 Captured Soldiers

Forces in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region have released around 1,000 government soldiers captured during recent fighting, as both sides prepared for a showdown over contested land in the west of the region.

Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), told News men by satellite phone late on Friday that they have released 1,000 low-ranking soldiers.

He said More than 5,000 (soldiers) are still with us, and we will keep the senior officers who will face trial.

He added the soldiers had been driven to Tigray’s southern border with the Amhara region on Friday, but did not say who received them or how the release was negotiated.

A military spokesman said he was not immediately available to comment on Saturday, and the spokesman for the Amhara regional administration said he had no information on the release.

Officials in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office and a government taskforce on Tigray did not answer calls seeking comment.

Fighting broke out in Tigray in November when the government accused the TPLF of attacking military bases across the region, which the party denied. The government declared victory three weeks later when it took control of the regional capital, Mekelle, but the TPLF kept fighting.

In a dramatic turn, the TPLF retook Mekelle and most of Tigray at the end of June, after the government pulled out its soldiers and declared a unilateral ceasefire.

However, the TPLF vowed to keep fighting until it had regained control of disputed territory in the south and west of Tigray that was seized during the fighting by the government’s allies from Amhara.Abiy said this week that the military would repel any TPLF threat, effectively abandoning the self-declared truce. Amhara and three other regions said they were mobilizing forces to support the national army in its fight against the TPLF.