Ethiopians flee Tigray capital in fear of imminent assault

Tigray people who fled the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region stand on a hill top over looking Umm Rakouba refugee camp in Qadarif, eastern Sudan (Nariman El-Mofty/AP)

People continued to flee the capital of Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region in fear of an imminent assault after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the army had been ordered to move in for the “final phase” of an offensive to arrest the defiant regional leaders.

Fighting reportedly remained well outside Mekele, a densely populated city of a half a million people who had been warned by the Ethiopian government of “no mercy” if they did not separate themselves from the Tigray leaders in time.