Ethiopia govt says army controls 70% of Tigray, rebels deny claims
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The federal army now controls 70% of the war-torn northern region of Tigray, according to the Ethiopian government.
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Standing guard during the Tigray regional elections, which the national government declared illegal (Getty Images)
The federal army now controls 70% of the war-torn Tigray region in the country's north, according to the Ethiopian government.
"70% of Tigray is under ENDF (Ethiopian National Defence Force)," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's national security advisor Redwan Hussein said on Twitter.
"Aid is flowing like no other time," he added.
70% of Tigray is under ENDF.Aid is flowing like no other times.Even to the areas not yet held by ENDF.35 trucks of food and 3trucks of medicine arrived shire. Flights are allowed. Services are being reconnected. The agreement just provides opportunities to enhance services.
— Redwan Hussien (@RedwanHussien) November 11, 2022
The six million-populated Tigray is still inaccessible to journalists, and access to northern Ethiopia is severely constrained.
Due to a severe humanitarian crisis brought on by a lack of food and medicine, the northernmost region of Ethiopia has limited access to basic services like electricity, banking, and communications.
Read next: Ethiopia rejects UN report on human rights violations in Tigray
Redwan's remarks come more than a week after the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the government came to an agreement to put an end to their bloody two-year conflict.
Representatives of the warring parties have been holding talks this week in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to discuss strategies for disarming the rebels.
Tigrayan rebels rejected Ethiopian government claims on Friday that federal forces held 70% of Tigray and that aid was being delivered to the region's war-torn area.
"He is plucking his facts out of thin air," Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesman Getachew Reda told AFP in a message, referring to the assertions in a Twitter post by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's national security advisor Redwan Hussein.
Read next: New airstrike targets Ethiopia's Tigray
A few days ago, the Ethiopian government and Tigray People's Liberation Fron (TPLF) announced on November 2 that they agreed on settling their dispute which has crippled Ethiopia over the past two years.
They took the resolve to "permanently silence the guns" by setting up a program of disarmament and integration of rebels and "end the two years of conflict in northern Ethiopia," the two parties said in a joint statement after marathon talks in South Africa.
The announcement was made by the African Union's mediator, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
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