On Friday, a pro-government militia in Ethiopia announced its control of the airport in the city of Mekele, the capital of the northern Tigray region, following a counterattack it launched against rebel forces.
The “Tigray Peace Force” said in a post on the “X” platform: “We have taken full control of Alola Aba Nega Airport in Mekele,” located about 10 kilometers outside the city. This claim could not be independently verified, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
Earlier, the armed group said it was advancing towards the capital of Tigray, the rebel stronghold in the north of the country, amid growing fears that the fighting would turn into a broader war after Ethiopia and Eritrea severed their diplomatic relations.
The Ethiopian army and allied fighters have made rapid progress in Tigray since fighting broke out last week with the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a rebel alliance led by the ruling party in the region, in the largest escalation of violence since the civil war that took place between 2020 and 2022.
Analysts fear that the current conflict will extend beyond Ethiopia's borders into an increasingly fragile region, where other powers compete for influence. Eritrea, Ethiopia's old arch-enemy, is located north of Tigray, while Sudan, which has been suffering from a civil war that has been going on for more than three years, is located to its west.
The Ethiopian government accused Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt of supporting the opposition coalition, accusations denied by the three countries.
The Ebola epidemic has killed more than four thousand people out of more than eight thousand confirmed cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to what the authorities in the country, which is facing the worst outbreak in its history, said Friday.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing the seventeenth outbreak of the epidemic, and within a few months it has become the deadliest in the history of the Central African country, as the authorities are facing difficulty in dealing with its spread, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Congolese authorities counted 8,300 cases of Ebola, including 4,018 deaths and 2,162 recoveries. Six Ebola cases, including four deaths, were also recorded in North Kivu Province (northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in areas under the control of the M23 group, according to what the Rwandan-backed group announced on Friday.
The most recent outbreak of the epidemic began in Ituri in northeastern Democratic Congo, and spread to seven provinces north and east. Efforts to combat it face a lack of resources, the spread of armed groups, and a lack of confidence among the population in areas that are among the most volatile in the country.
The United Nations announced on Thursday that “violent armed clashes” had hampered response operations to the Ebola epidemic in Ituri in recent days. A center for people infected with the virus also burned down, on Tuesday evening, in the same province, after soldiers entered a site for displaced people and caused its residents to flee, according to the United Nations.
One of the service providers responsible for detecting cases was killed during an attack targeting a health checkpoint in North Kivu, authorities announced on Wednesday.
France, whose Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot is visiting the Democratic Republic of the Congo, allocated 13.4 million euros to combat Ebola between January and July. There was no information about providing additional aid.
The United States announced the release of an additional $267 million to combat Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Doctors Without Borders announced on Thursday that a member of its staff had been evacuated to the Netherlands after he tested positive for Ebola. The Dutch Ministry of Health explained that the infected person is a doctor sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to contribute to the fight against the epidemic.
In mid-September, the World Health Organization spoke of “encouraging” indicators in the development of the fight against the epidemic. However, the Director-General of the African Union Health Agency believed that the epidemic was “not under control.”
