Nairobi, Nov 24 (AP) Alarm spiralled Tuesday over Ethiopia's imminent tank attack on the capital of the defiant Tigray region, with a rush of warnings about protecting civilians three weeks after the war began.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's 72-hour ultimatum for the region's leaders to surrender ends on Wednesday.

Also Read | COVID-19 Cases Rise in Shanghai; Hundreds of Flights Cancelled at China’s Pudong Airport to Control Infection.

His military has warned civilians there will be “no mercy” if they don't move away from the leaders in time – which some human rights groups and diplomats say could violate international law.

“The highly aggressive rhetoric on both sides regarding the fight for Mekele is dangerously provocative and risks placing already vulnerable and frightened civilians in grave danger,” United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said.

Also Read | China Criticises Pope Francis Over Comment on Uighur Muslim Minority.

The allegation that the Tigray leaders were hiding among civilians “does not then give the Ethiopian state carte blanche to respond with the use of artillery in densely populated areas.”

A year before taking power in Ethiopia and introducing reforms to win the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy successfully defended a PhD thesis in conflict resolution.

Now he sits in Africa's diplomatic capital and rejects calls for dialogue.

Meanwhile, a powerful voice in efforts for dialogue, the United States, is in disarray as the Trump administration remains focused on internal politics after losing the November election — and after President Donald Trump infuriated Ethiopia with comments on a separate issue this year.

The diplomatic vacuum has brought Ethiopia, one of Africa's most powerful and populous countries, to what Amnesty International calls “the brink of a deadly escalation” at the heart of the strategic Horn of Africa.

With time running out before the assault on Mekele and its population of some half-million people, the UN Security Council is reportedly meeting Tuesday to discuss the situation.

But efforts by the UN secretary-general, the African Union, the European Union and others have been turned aside.

In an unusually public disagreement over the weekend, the current AU chair, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, backed three high-level envoys for Ethiopia, an initiative the UN chief quickly praised for “efforts to peacefully resolve the conflict.”

Ethiopia, however, said the envoys would meet with Abiy and not the Tigray leaders.

“All possible scenarios will be on the table to talk, except bringing the gang to the table as a legitimate entity,” senior Ethiopian official Redwan Hussein told reporters on Monday.

Abiy's government insists the leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front are criminals on the run.

The heavily armed TPLF dominated Ethiopia's government for more than a quarter-century, then was sidelined after Abiy took office in 2018 and sought to centralize power in a country long ruled along ethnic lines.

The TPLF opted out when Abiy dissolved the ruling coalition, then infuriated the federal government by holding an election in September after national elections were postponed by COVID-19. Abiy's mandate has expired, the TPLF argues.

Each side now regards the other as illegal. Meanwhile, hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed, nearly 40,000 people have fled into Sudan and the UN says 2 million people in the sealed-off Tigray region urgently need help as food and medical supplies run out.

With the crisis exploding, some were dismayed to hear the top US diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, repeat Washington's stance that the TPLF was to blame for seeking to depose Abiy — and yet assert that the US had little information from inside the Tigray region with communications largely severed.

The US stance is notably different from other high-profile pleas for dialogue, which urge both sides for an immediate de-escalation without assigning blame.

“Mediation, I think it's very important to underscore – it's a tactic, it's a way to get to the goal. It's not a goal in itself. I mean, our goal is a quick end to the conflict," Nagy told reporters late last week, after acknowledging that US diplomats are asked about it “immediately.”

The US ambassador to Ethiopia, Michael Raynor, added that in his discussions with Abiy and the Tigray leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, “there was a strong commitment on both sides to see the military conflict through.”(AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)