Ethiopia says Tigray capital encircled after surrender ultimatum

Ethiopia says Tigray capital encircled after surrender ultimatum

Ethiopia says Tigray capital encircled after surrender ultimatum

Ethiopia says Tigray capital encircled after surrender ultimatum

An Ethiopian woman who fled the ongoing fighting in Tigray region, sits in Hamdayet village near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, eastern Kassala state, Sudan November 22, 2020. (Reuters)

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Ethiopia says Tigray capital encircled after surrender ultimatum

PM Abiy's forces pushing to take Mekelle city

Government says Tigrayan forces destroy Axum airport

Updated 23 November 2020

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ADDIS ABABA/NAIROBI: Ethiopian federal forces were encircling the Tigray region's capital from around 50 km (30 miles) on Monday, the government said, after giving the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) a 72-hour surrender ultimatum.

"The beginning of the end is within reach,“ government spokesman Redwan Hussein said of the nearly three-week-old offensive that has destabilized Ethiopia and spilled into some Horn of Africa neighbors.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has told the TPLF, which had been ruling the mountainous northern zone of 5 million people, to lay down arms by Wednesday or face a final assault on Mekelle, a highland city of half a million people.

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael denied that Mekelle was surrounded and told Reuters the ultimatum threat was a cover for government forces to regroup after what he described as defeats on three fronts.

Reuters could