After the sudden defeat, the captured Ethiopian soldiers are thrown into prison

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Meckel, Ethiopia – Thousands of Ethiopian prisoners of war were paraded in the regional capital Tigray on Friday as jubilant crowds lined the streets to taunt the captives and cheer on the Tigray forces who just days earlier defeated one of Africa’s most powerful armies.

Many soldiers bowed their heads and rolled their eyes. Some had to be carried on stretchers, others in bandages freshly stained with blood.

The swift defeat of the Ethiopian forces was a stunning reversal of the civil war that led to the displacement of nearly two million people in the Tigray region, widespread famine, and reports of civilian atrocities and sexual violence.

The convoy of prisoners was a clear rebuke to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, who declared in a speech on Tuesday in the national capital Addis Ababa that reports of his forces’ defeat were a “lie”. He insisted that he declared a unilateral ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

Mr. Abiy actually declared victory last year, just a month after the start of the military operation in Tigray in November – but the fighting continued for another seven months.

The defeated Ethiopian soldiers, surrounded by Tigrayan fighters, march for four days from the quickly set up camps on the battlefield where they have been held since the fighting ended this week. The streets of Mikkeli, the Tigrayan capital, were flooded, and they were led to a large prison on the northern edge of the city.

A 14-year-old woman rushed into the street to run alongside the queue, screaming her admiration for the leader of the Tigrayan forces, calling him a “lion”.

“All these soldiers tried to kill us,” said the young woman, Mayarg Gebrumdhin, moments later, referring to the Ethiopian government forces. But the Tigrayan soldiers showed their mercy. I am proud of our soldiers.”

While some of the crowd mocked the soldiers, onlookers focused much of their anger on the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Mr. Abiy.

Nearly eight months ago, Mr. Abiy sent his troops to Mekele to wrest power from the region’s leaders, and declared the move necessary because the Tigrayans held local elections without the permission of the federal government, and attempted to seize an Ethiopian military base. .

Now the victorious Tigrayan leaders have returned to Mikkeli, reoccupying their former offices.

In a long and exclusive interview shortly after he arrived from his stronghold in the mountains, Departition Gebremichael, leader of the ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, said his fighters had captured more than 6,000 Ethiopian soldiers.

He said Tigrayan officials are in contact with the International Committee of the Red Cross, and they will soon release the low-ranking soldiers, but will keep the officers in custody.

Under the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war must be given food and clothing, and protected from violence, intimidation and “the curiosity of the masses”. There was no immediate indication that Ethiopian soldiers had been mistreated, or whether walking them through Mekele’s streets was a breach of agreements.

Since Ethiopia declared a unilateral ceasefire on Monday and withdrew its forces from Mekele, Tigray has suffered from electricity, communications and internet cuts. According to the United Nations, the consequences will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation.

International aid agencies have warned of a looming humanitarian catastrophe and said it was unclear if the rebel victory would allow international aid to begin reaching those most in need in the Tigray region, which is bordered by Eritrea to the north and Sudan to the west.

The United Nations said at least 350,000 people in the strife-torn region have entered a state of famine. The US Agency for International Development put its estimate of those facing famine conditions at 900,000.

On Thursday, a bridge was destroyed that provided vital access across the Tekezi River to the town of Shire in central Tigray, where the United Nations estimates there are between 400,000 and 600,000 internally displaced people living in squalid conditions.

The bridge was destroyed by forces of the Amhara Special Forces and the Eritrean army, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the country north of Tigray, which fought as allies with Ethiopian forces, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

“Destroying the bridge will have an impact,” said Claire Neville, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program.

An aid agency employee who was traveling through Tigray on Thursday said there was “little to no entry into the area” at the moment and that food trucks had been prevented from getting there by forces along the border with the Amhara region.

In the interview, Mr. Debretsion said Tigrayan leaders are working to deliver international aid as quickly as possible.

Analysts say Mr. Abiy, who has served as Ethiopia’s prime minister since 2018 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for making peace with Eritrea and pioneering domestic democratic reforms, now faces enormous political challenges.

The alliance that Ethiopia forged with Eritrea and fighters in the Amhara region could explode as Ethiopian forces continue to withdraw from direct engagement and Tigrayan fighters on the offensive.

“Amhara’s support for him will eventually wane,” said Mehari Tadele Maru, Professor of Governance and Geopolitics at the European University Institute. “The only thing that held things together in the Amhara region was the anti-Tigray sentiment. Once the Tigray material was out of the game, the glue that held it back was no longer coherent.”

Getachew Reda, a senior Tigrayan leader, said in a phone interview on Tuesday that Tigray forces would not hesitate to enter Eritrea, and might try to advance towards its capital, if that was what it took to prevent Eritrean forces from attacking again. He claimed that in recent days the Tigrayan forces had killed many Ethiopian troops and militia fighters.

UN security documents showed that, since June 30, fighting continues between Tigrayan and Eritrean forces in northwest Tigray, near the disputed towns of Badme and Sherau.

“We want to undermine as many enemy capabilities as possible,” said Mr. Getachew. “We are still on the hunt so that the enemy forces do not pose a threat in any way to the Tigray.”

By Friday, many of the Ethiopian soldiers who had arrived at the prison looked hungry and exhausted. They were put in cells and the men were separated from the women.

They passed a Tigray gauntlet celebrating their capture. Adanai Hagos, 23, who walked past the soldiers yelling at them, explained that he was very angry that some of his friends had been killed by Eritrean forces allied with the Ethiopian army.

“This is just one step,” he said. They invaded our land from the west and south. Until they leave, the war is not over.”

Simon Marks contributed reporting from Brussels.

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