Government offices and police stations in Mekelle were left without security personnel as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, abandoned the northern Ethiopian regional capital.
Ethiopian federal forces entered Mekelle on Saturday and seized the city’s airport, after federal troops and pro-government militias pushed the rebels back in recent days while advancing north towards the capital.
A journalist in the city told AFP: ‘TPLF militants and leaders are leaving Mekelle’. Residents also reported that the region’s rebels had abandoned the city.
A humanitarian source told AFP that Ethiopian federal forces and allied forces had reportedly been observed at various locations across Mekelle. The size and composition of the forces, the extent of their control of the city and whether they encountered armed resistance were not known.
Telecommunications networks have been severely disrupted in Tigray since hostilities began. A local resident told AFP: ‘I am concerned that government and public property could be exposed to looting because there are no security forces in the city’.
The fighting began on 23 September, when the TPLF launched attacks into neighbouring states, setting it against federal forces and pro-government militias. The group controls the Tigray region.
Commercial flights were suspended last month after rebels from the TPLF took over.
The withdrawal from Mekelle shifts momentum in the contest for control of Tigray and its capital. The conflict has raised fears of an all-out civil war similar to the devastating conflict of 2020-2022.
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