In interviews, recruits mentioned they had been pushed to affix the T.D.F. by the struggling they witnessed — relations who had been slaughtered, clergymen gunned down in church buildings, sisters and moms sexually assaulted.
In Mekelle, in the meantime, the federal government’s grip had steadily weakened in current months, authorities officers mentioned. Cops defected to the rebels, vanishing with weapons, autos and even prisoners sprung free from jail.
Younger medical doctors from the town’s Ayder Hospital, which has handled civilians blown up in Ethiopian airstrikes, or gang raped by Eritrean troopers, slipped over to the insurgent aspect.
A middle treating sexual assault survivors on the Ayder Hospital has had 585 sufferers since December, mentioned its director, Mihira Redae. About 1,500 extra sufferers had been registered at 4 facilities throughout Tigray, she added.
“It’s not simply violence towards particular person girls,” she mentioned. “It’s towards the Tigrayan individuals.”
On the sting of Mekelle on Tuesday, younger males looted abandoned Ethiopian army camps, accumulating deserted Ethiopian uniforms that they tied to the again of vans and rickshaws and dragged by the streets.
A hearth smoldered subsequent to the command headquarters, close to the town airport, the place piles of army paperwork had been burned. A handful of surviving paperwork confirmed lists of troopers and officers.
Throughout the street, close to the airport runway, the physique of an aged man lay dumped on the sting of a dust monitor. A bullet gap pocked his hip. Residents who discovered him mentioned they didn’t understand how he had died, however that a number of residents had vanished into army custody throughout what they referred to as the Ethiopian occupation.
Reporting was contributed by Simon Marks in Brussels and Abdi Latif Dahir in Nairobi.