00:17 EDT, 30 December 2020
Celebrations: A man waves the Ethiopian imperial flag during an impromptu parade for freed opposition leaders in Alamata
As rifle-toting militiamen fired celebratory rounds into the air, young men marched through the streets denouncing the former ruling party of Ethiopia s Tigray region as thieves.
The party, the Tigray People s Liberation Front (TPLF), is the target of military operations ordered by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, last year s Nobel Peace laureate, that have reportedly left thousands dead since early November.
But the impromptu parade this month in Alamata, a farming town in southern Tigray flanked by low, rolling mountains, was unrelated to any kind of battlefield victory.