Strategic point located in the north of Ethiopia, the city is witness to an climbing of the conflict that has ravaged the country since 2020.
Le Monde with AFP
The Ethiopian and Eritrean forces took control of Shiré on Monday, October 17. This key town is located about fifty kilometers from the border with Eritrea, a country that borders the whole north of the Tiger. The command of rebel forces of this northern region of Ethiopia called “all valid Tigreans” to “defend themselves with obstinacy”, in a press release published Tuesday.
Shiré, which had 100,000 inhabitants before the conflict, houses an airport and is on a road connecting Makale, the regional capital, about 300 km. Thousands of people displaced by the conflict which ravages northern Ethiopia since November 2020 have found refuge there.
The UN denounces a level of “alarming” violence
Monday, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, warned that” the situation in Ethiopia becomes uncontrollable “and that” violence and destruction are reaching Alarming levels “, evoking the” terrible price paid by civilians “and the” nightmare “experienced by the Ethiopian population.
m. Guterres claimed “the immediate withdrawal and disengagement from Ethiopia from the Eritrean armed forces” which supported the Ethiopian federal troops in the tiger. He also asked “all parties” to allow the passage of humanitarian aid, the UN of which has suspended the routing since the resumption of the fighting at the end of August. “Hostilities in the tiger must now stop,” insisted Antonio Guterres, relaying a similar call to an “immediate” ceasefire launched on Sunday by the African Union (UA).
In recent days UN, UA, European Union (EU) and United States, among others, have been worried about the intensification of military offensives in the Tiger, notably in Shiré, target of bombing for several days. Two civilians and an employee of the NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC) perished in a bombardment on Friday.