Redae Halefom Woldeselassie, a senior official in Tigray's newly installed caretaker administration, made the appeal in Mekelle on Friday. "This is not the time for settling scores: I call upon you to return to your homes and continue your civilian lives," he said. He dismissed the prospect of the rebels retaking the city, maintaining the conflict served a small clique of leaders rather than the people of Tigray.
His call came hours after Lieutenant General Fisseha Kidanu, identified in a television broadcast as commander of the Tigray army, pledged to reverse recent military setbacks. "Local militias across the region, alongside all volunteers joining the resistance, are expected to engage the enemy," he said Thursday on Tigray Broadcast Media, a new rebel television station. His location was not disclosed. Fisseha urged attacks on government-held positions despite his opponents' advantages in drones and heavy weapons. The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) has also claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on government forces, claims the Associated Press could not independently verify.
Fighters from the TPLF were forced to withdraw from Mekelle in early October after government-allied forces entered the city to crush a rebel attempt to overthrow Ethiopia's government. Ethiopia then installed a six-month caretaker administration in Tigray, promising to restore services, help displaced people return and prepare for elections.
Some fighting has continued. Residents of Mekelle reported a drone strike on Tuesday that killed four people and injured six as they loaded goats onto a truck. The casualties could not be independently verified.
The government's allies include the Tigray Peace Force, made up of former members of the TPLF's armed wing, a division within Tigrayan forces that has complicated the renewed conflict. Redae said Ethiopian troops and allied forces were conducting joint security operations, including measures to prevent looting, and promised preparations for displaced residents to return without giving a timetable.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, speaking on Monday to the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation, accused the TPLF of forcibly recruiting young people to fight instead of disarming under the November 2022 Pretoria peace agreement. The renewed fighting has effectively shattered that agreement, which ended the region's 2020-2022 war, a conflict that researchers at Ghent University in Belgium estimate caused 500,000 civilian deaths through violence, famine and collapsed health services.