A plane flies next to Tigray Martyrs' monument during the funeral ceremony of Ethiopia's Army Chief of Staff Seare Mekonnen in Mekele, Tigray Region, Ethiopia. [Reuters]The former rulers of Ethiopia's Tigray region said on Monday they were back in control of the regional capital Mekelle after nearly eight months of fighting, and the government which ousted them declared a unilateral ceasefire with immediate effect. They followed recent reports of an escalation in fighting between government troops and the Tigray's former governing party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), outside Mekelle. "The capital of Tigray, Mekelle, is under our control," Getachew Reda, a TPLF spokesperson, told Reuters by satellite phone on Monday night. The U.N. children's agency accused Ethiopian government troops of dismantling satellite equipment in UNICEF's office in Mekelle on Monday.

Source: Standard Digital June 29, 2021 08:15 UTC