well the red cross says the capital of
ethiopia's northern
tigrai region is struggling with
shortages of food and
medical supplies that's a day after
ethiopia's prime minister declared
victory in a military campaign against
two grain fighters
wounded fighters have been inundating
hospitals in the regional capital
ethiopian troops had been closing in
onto grey's regional capital
since forces there ignored an ultimatum
to surrender on wednesday
they say they've seized control of all
key installations
including the airport and have freed
thousands of troops
allegedly being held hostage by to grind
forces
the ethiopian army says its main aim now
is to track down any last holdouts
after fully controlling mekula city our
army is hunting and going after
and searching for the elements opposed
to peace
that are hiding in holes and pits
but despite the ethiopian army's
declaration of victory
tograi enforcers say the conflict is not
yet over
they told reuters news agency that they
would continue their fight
from areas not yet under government
control
some analysts believe they could also be
planning to conduct a guerrilla war
from the mountains the fate of civilians
is also causing concern
tens of thousands have fled to
neighbouring sudan
they are very uncomfortable being in
exile
many of them as i've said many times
already are
have left behind everything relatives
their work most of them are farmers and
it is the harvest time and they cannot
do it so
a major source of livelihood is lost
another source of anguish for many
refugees is the lack of information
about what is happening to their loved
ones back home
because the government has cut internet
and phone links to the region
aid agencies are also urging the
authorities to open a humanitarian
corridor
to allow them to help people on the
ground
for more we can now go to addis ababa
and the ethiopian
minister in charge of democratization
uh welcome minister let's talk about the
current situation in the country
ethiopia's prime minister abi ahmed has
said the fighting is over
but to brian forces claiming it's not
yet finished
is the region entirely in the
government's control
in our control you know it is uh normal
like
when saddam hussein's iraq was under the
control of
america u.s forces its spokesperson used
to say we are in control until
they take up the whole the capital city
so this is the same uh propaganda
we are in control of the whole thing
region their last holdout was magaly
now we are control of each and every
uh area of megalith i want to set us at
the
one wrong meeting threat by the way we
are not the one who cuts the
telecom connectivity integral it is a
tplf
that cuts the telecom connectivity with
a view to keep the tigran people
incomplicated from the rest of the world
so that they will contribute continue to
be fed from the false
dependent propaganda now we are working
with
experts to reconnect the telecom
connectivity
and in some places it has already been
restored now it is of course
difficult for independent observers to
verify
these reports because access to tigra
has been tightly controlled since the
start of the conflict
when will media be allowed to access the
tigrai region again
it is not as blocking the access it is
the situation
there was an active military operation
that would have endangered the lives of
journalists
at the same time there is no the telecom
connectivity has been
cut have been destroyed by the dpl road
networks have been destroyed airports
are destroyed we are working to rebuild
that
without these facilities individual
nurses cannot go
and access information we have nothing
to hire to hide as the
assert of the report we introduced three
years down the line
is transparency openness this government
is an open government it is a situation
that is
forbidding us from allowing journalists
to access
otherwise we have nothing to hide
of course as this happens food and
medical supplies are
running low and alarm is growing over a
humanitarian crisis
how are you going to ensure delivery of
badly needed supplies
ethiopia is the third largest host the
best
largest of refugees in the world we know
how to deal with this
we are now supplying to the region
a great deal of food
and other resources where we're working
with you and energy
and with un agencies to supply those in
need of food
so and pretty much soon we'll also open
a humanitarian corridor with all these
efforts
we believe world we will be able to help
out our citizens who are in their need
of food
i want to talk about that humanitarian
corridor that you've proposed
you say it's coming soon but how soon is
soon
as soon as we are able to repair those
networks or those bridges that are
already destroyed
well the working day in day out
trying to rebuild the resource the the
connectivity that is
that has been destroyed once that thing
is in place will allow it
already there is a humanitarian access
our many our relevant ministry is
working um agencies museum agencies
supply food so what's in need and we can
elevate this to the
humanitarian corridor pretty much soon
it is a situation that is
stopping us from doing so we we want our
we don't want our people to suffer
we are doing everything we can we are
using a national
food storage to supply our people with
food with everything we can our
community is mobilized our
the holy chicken people are mobilized
towards helping their their
uh their beloved ones their their
counterparts in their uh their people in
tigray
everyone in the nation is working
towards helping them out
well the prime minister has rejected a
dialogue with
the tiguay people's liberation front
leaders so how are you going to broker
an
end to this conflict without sitting
down at the table together
the conflict is already ended the
tigerian people
have said no apologies that the the tplf
is now radius to less than 100 people
then the top each alone of that
developed the degree of people
have impressed the the the
the ruler of the rule of law operation
whenever our military
personnel made their way to one of the
great cities
they they
they were welcoming them they were
coming in mass chanting
saying that they don't want to play
anymore so typically
with whom are we going to negotiate the
plf is defeated militarily
it no longer has its people base by its
side
so there is no negotiation this is about
uh
making them accountable to what they
have been doing now
or we are left together i'm afraid we're
going to have to leave it there but
thank you very much for coming on dw
news
thank you and meanwhile the fighting in
tigrai has sent
tens of thousands of refugees streaming
into neighboring sudan
seeking a safe haven according to the
u.n almost
half of them are children two's mario
filed this report from a camp just
inside the sudanese border
ayobe likes to sing songs he learned
growing up in tigrain
he misses playing with his friends and
especially with his older brothers
i miss them all i want to go back home
because i want to play with my brothers
i miss my friends and my brothers
it's been three weeks since ayoblast saw
his family
his mother had brought him to his
teacher's doorstep when the bomb started
falling on their hometown in humera
she said she had to search for her two
older sons asefuyasu recalls
without a second thought she took him
and ran
we jumped over dead bodies our neighbors
were dead
but we couldn't bury them so we just
kept running
eryop saw a lot of things a
seven-year-old shouldn't see
says asifo yasu she's close friend of
his mother and has known him for years
he trusts her many other children
who flatirai were not so lucky the un
estimates almost half the 40
000 refugees from the region are
children it's not clear how many of them
arrived in sudan on their own
but the health ministry is currently
registering all these as especially
vulnerable
we face multiple problems first an
important one we have to find out
whether the family came to sudan or not
if the family was killed we need to
explain that to the child
after that we look for a solution
asefu iyaso hopes that she will never
have to explain that to ayob
she believes his parents are alive but
with no phone and a communication
blackout in tegrai
she can't reach anyone in their hometown
if god lets me live long enough and if
there's peace
i'll take the boy back to his mother now
i'm a refugee but i will do whatever i
can for this boy
he's like my own son life at the camp is
hard
ayop and sf were still wearing the same
clothes
as when they left home often they have
to try three or four pumps to get water
but still sometimes asefu manages to get
aeop something special
i love her because she takes care of me
she buys me biscuits
fruits and candies i really love you