THE BATTLE, in the end, was mercifully short. The 500,000 inhabitants of Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray, were spared a large-scale bloodbath. On November 28th Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, declared victory over Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). A military operation started a few weeks earlier was complete, he said. This came two days after he announced an assault on the city that the army had earlier warned would brook “no mercy”. Shelling of the city began at about ten that morning, according to eyewitnesses. By the evening Tigray’s president, Debretsion Gebremichael, and other TPLF leaders had vanished into the mountains. Crowds in the national capital, Addis Ababa, and elsewhere broke into celebration.
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