{"id":12821,"date":"2021-11-02T20:34:10","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=12821"},"modified":"2021-11-02T20:34:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T20:34:12","slug":"ethiopia-declares-state-of-emergency-as-rebels-advance-toward-capital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/?p=12821","title":{"rendered":"Ethiopia Declares State of Emergency as Rebels Advance Toward Capital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a milestone in the yearlong conflict, the government called on civilians to pick up arms and prepare to defend Addis Ababa after Tigrayan forces captured two key towns about 160 miles away.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: The New York Times<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

November 2, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and called on its citizens to pick up arms and prepare to defend the capital as rebel forces from the northern region of Tigray pressed south toward the city, following the capture of two key towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigrayans, who have been fighting the government for the past year, have joined forces with another rebel group as they advance on the capital, Addis Ababa. Foreign officials monitoring the fighting said there were signs that several Ethiopian army units had collapsed or retreated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state of emergency reflected the rapidly changing tide in a metastasizing war that threatens to tear apart Ethiopia, Africa\u2019s second-most populous country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also marked another dismal turn in the fortunes of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner whose international reputation has been battered by a war that has led to reports of human rights violations, massacres and famine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a year ago, Mr. Abiy launched a military campaign in the northern Tigray region, hoping to vanquish the regional ruling party, the Tigray People\u2019s Liberation Front, his most troublesome political foe. But after promising a swift, even bloodless campaign, Mr. Abiy was quickly drawn into a military quagmire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ethiopian military suffered a major defeat when it was forced to withdraw from Tigray in June. Now the war is rapidly moving toward Mr. Abiy, after the Tigrayan rebels took the towns of Dessie and Kombolcha, just 160 miles to the northeast of the capital, in recent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
By The New York Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Under the state of emergency declared Tuesday, Mr. Abiy has sweeping powers to arrest and detain critics, impose curfews and restrict the news media. Announcing the measures in a televised news conference, Ethiopia\u2019s justice minister, Gedion Timothewos, said that any citizen over 18 could be called into the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose who own weapons will be obliged to hand them over to the government,\u201d he said. The state of emergency will last six months, the government said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement brought a mixed reaction in the city, where tensions have been building for days as news filtered in of Tigrayan military advances. A taxi driver named Dereje, who refused to give his second name, said he intended to join in the fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am not going to sit in my house and wait for the enemy,\u201d he said. \u201cI will fight for my kids and country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a teacher, who declined to give his name, said he had lost faith in the government. \u201cThey lied to us that T.P.L.F. have been defeated,\u201d he said. \u201cI am terribly worried about what is going to happen. May God help us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Biden, who has threatened to impose sanctions on Ethiopia unless it moves toward peace talks, said Tuesday he would revoke trade privileges to Ethiopia, including duty-free access to the United States, on account of \u201cgross violations of internationally recognized human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a separate briefing, Jeffrey Feltman, the Biden administration\u2019s envoy to the Horn of Africa, told reporters the deepening conflict could have \u201cdisastrous consequences\u201d for Ethiopia\u2019s unity and its ties to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billene Seyoum, a spokeswoman for Mr. Abiy, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a milestone in the yearlong conflict, the government called on civilians to pick up arms and prepare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,82],"class_list":["post-12821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-english","tag-the-new-york-times"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",1024,683,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",300,200,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",640,427,false],"large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",1024,683,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",1024,683,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",825,550,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",590,394,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638.jpg",600,400,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/axumawian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/638-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Axumawian Media"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12824,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12821\/revisions\/12824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/axumawian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}