Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Сілы абароны Тыграя" in Belarusian language version.
As fighting erupted, Tigray officials declared that soldiers from the Northern Command of the Ethiopian military had defected and sided with them.... But although federal forces quickly seized control of Tigray's main towns, the T.P.L.F. and its armed supporters fled to rural and mountainous areas, where sporadic fighting continued through February.
And the top military commanders of the T.P.L.F. remain at large. Two Western officials and one with the T.P.L.F., who were not authorized to speak publicly, identified Lt. Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a former head of the Ethiopian military, as a senior rebel leader. General Tsadkan led Ethiopia into combat against Eritrea during the two countries' brutal border war between 1998 and 2000. In recent years, after retiring from the army, he ran a small brewery. Now 66, he is back in the fight with the newly formed Tigray Defense Forces, battling the Ethiopian army he once commanded.
Tigrayan forces and militia are battle-hardened, have large stocks of military hardware and number up to 250,000 men, experts say. Federal authorities have restricted access to the region, making it hard to verify details of the fighting. However, there are indications that Tigrayans in the powerful Northern Command, which accounts for about half of the federal army's manpower and its best divisions, are defecting. Local forces are already in control of its headquarters in Mekelle and other army facilities in Tigray, according to a United Nations internal security report seen by Reuters. Ethiopia expert Alex de Waal said Abiy may have underestimated the Tigray leaders' skills at both politics and war. The Tufts University academic recalled the words of Tsadkan Gebretensae, a Tigrayan who once commanded Ethiopia's army against Eritrea, in a conversation with him: "War is primarily an intellectual activity"
Despite the deployment of Eritrean troops and militia from Ethiopia's Amhara region, which borders Tigray to the south, most TPLF leaders remain on the run and ICG noted that none were reported captured or killed in February or March. Pro-TPLF fighters have regrouped under the Tigray Defense Forces, an armed movement "led by the removed Tigrayan leaders and commanded by former high-ranking" military officers, ICG said.
