Women walk the streets wearing black as news of dead relatives trickles in from rural areas that remain inaccessible.
Mekele natives worry their home may never regain its old charm.
“This was a fast-growing city, it was a very vibrant city. It was alive for 24 hours,” said Dr Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief clinical director at Mekele’s Ayder Referral Hospital.
“Now, as you can see, it is covered in a blanket of sadness.”
Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto warned Tuesday that the crisis in Ethiopia’s conflict-hit Tigray region appears “out of control”, after visiting the country on behalf of the EU.
“You have come to the situation which is militarily and human rights-wise, humanitarian-wise very out of control,” Haavisto told journalists in Brussels.
Tigray has been the theatre of fighting since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.
