News — clash

The government in Addis Ababa has sent out the clearest warning yet to regional forces of the beleaguered Tigray government to lay down their weapons or face Ethiopia‘s army in the regional capital Mekelle when a 72-hour ultimatum expires.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued a statement announcing what he called the commencement of the “final and third phases” in the altercation with Tigray. Ethiopians forces have previously launched attacks on strategic Tigrayan positions in the north over the last few weeks.

“Realizing that we are now in the last stages of the law enforcement action, we call upon them (the Tigrayan forces) to take advantage of this last opportunity and surrender peacefully to the government in 72 hours,” the statement said.

Abiy also called on civilians in the region to stand with national forces against a “few greedy individuals that are seeking impunity”. Ethiopia believes Tigray’s government is hoping to bolster its side of the story by leading national defense forces into committing collateral damage to lives, property as well as historical and cultural sites.

Tigray is eponymously named after the ethnic group who call the northern regional state their home. The Tigray ethnic group constitutes only about 5% of the country’s population but it is thought to probably the richest. Tigray is represented by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which used to be led by former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The TPLF backed out of a governing coalition headed by the current prime minister over disagreements with Ahmed. These disagreements have since devolved into violent tensions.

Lawmakers in the country’s parliament have also proposed deliberating on a motion that seeks to characterize the TPLF as a terrorist organization.

The north of the country holds the bulk of Ethiopia’s military installations, a situation that resulted from the 1998 war with northern neighbor Eritrea. This has generated widespread fears that a full-on confrontation between the government and Tigrayan forces would only spark a civil war.

Ethiopia’s security is already fragile with different ethnic groups in other parts of the country clamoring for everything from inclusion in the national government to secession.

Police and protesters clashed for a second night in Philadelphia following the police shooting death of 27-year-old Black man Walter Wallace Jr. Footage of the shooting shows Wallace being shot at several times by the police on Monday after they yelled at him to drop a knife.

Wallace had a mental health crisis before his killing, and his family had called for an ambulance to seek help for their son, according to their lawyer, Shaka Johnson. The lawyer said the officers were aware of Wallace’s mental health crisis since they had been to the family home on about three occasions before he was shot.

Hundreds of people who gathered in a West Philadelphia park on Tuesday night started marching through the neighborhood in protest of Wallace’s killing. The march turned violent when the group came across some police officers near a police station and started throwing bricks, rocks and light bulbs at them, according to reports. Others looted shops amid reports of arrests in other areas of the city Tuesday around 9 p.m.

During Monday night’s protests, some 30 police officers were injured and about 90 people were arrested. Philadelphia Police Department tweeted, “A large crowd of appx 1000 is looting businesses,” and advised residents to remain indoors as the police and the National Guard were deployed.

Wallace’s family has meanwhile condemned the violence and looting. “Stop this violence and chaos,” Wallace’s father, Walter Wallace Sr., said outside of the family’s home on Tuesday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “People have businesses. We all got to eat.”

Police commissioner Danielle M. Outlaw said an investigation into the shooting is underway, adding that all issues in the video would be addressed. District Attorney Larry Krasner also released a statement saying his office would conduct a joint investigation of the shooting along with the police department’s Officer-Involved Shooting Investigation Unit.

Police spokesperson Tanya Little said the shooting happened before 4 pm Monday after officers received a call about a man screaming and holding a weapon. Officers arrived at Cobbs Creek, a predominantly Black neighborhood in west Philadelphia where they found Wallace holding a knife, Little said. The officers ordered Wallace to drop the knife; he refused and rather “advanced toward” them, according to Little.

Both officers then fired “several times” at Wallace, who got hit in the shoulder and chest. He was later pronounced dead at a hospital the police drove him to. The officers involved have so far been taken off street duty pending further investigation.

A bystander shot a video of the incident, which was shared on social media by civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Wallace’s death is the latest killing of a Black person by police in the U.S. after months of protests against racial injustice and police brutality in the wake of the death of unarmed man George Floyd.