Ten Thousand Prisoners Missed With The Ethiopian Offensive On Tigray
JAKARTA - Ethiopian forces have regained control of a town in the northern state of Tigray. This was announced by the government's emergency task force on Sunday evening, November 15.
The task force accused regional leaders of taking 10,000 prisoners from Alamata City when they fled. Tigray's troops, on Saturday, November 14th fired rockets at neighboring Eritrea, escalating a 13-day conflict. '
The conflict is recorded to have killed hundreds of people on both sides. The heated conflict also threatens to destabilize other regions of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa region.
"When the TPLF (the ruling party in Tigray) militia were defeated in Alamata, they fled with about 10 thousand prisoners," the government task force said on Twitter.
Due to limited access and most communications cut off on Tigray, Reuters was unable to independently confirm the truth of the statements made by all parties. There has been no immediate comment from Tigray's leaders regarding the events at Alamata.
Alamata is a city bordering the State of Amhara which is located about 120 kilometers from the capital Tigray, Mekelle. Debretsion Gebremichael, head of the Tigray government, accused Eritrea of deploying tanks and thousands of troops to its territory in support of the Ethiopian government offensive.
Eritrea's Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed told Reuters last week his country was not involved in the conflict. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched operations in Tigray on November 4, after he accused local forces of attacking federal forces based in Tigray.
The state borders Eritrea and Sudan and has a population of about five million people. Fighting spread to Amhara State, Ethiopia, where regional forces are fighting with federal forces on Tigray.
On Friday evening, November 13, rockets were fired at two airports in Amhara which the TPLF said was in retaliation for government air strikes. The government said the attack was aimed at destroying equipment controlled by Tigray's rebel forces.
At least 20,000 Ethiopians have fled to safety in Sudan. This is known based on information from the United Nations (UN) on Sunday, November 16.