CAIRO — As Ethiopia teeters on the brink of civil war, the Ethiopian army threatened on Nov. 22 to send tanks to Mekelle, the capital of the northern Tigray region. It warned civilians that it could bomb the city, inhabited by 500,000 people.
“The next phases are the decisive part of the operation, which is to encircle Mekelle using tanks, ending the battle in the mountainous areas and advancing toward the fields,” military spokesperson Col. Dejene Tsegaye told the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation.