Getachew Reda, a senior adviser to the Tigray leader, in an interview with Tigray TV aired on Thursday urged young people and others in the region to "rise and deploy to battle in tens of thousands", days after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the weekend declared victory.

With the leaders of the Tigray People's Liberation Front on the run in rugged territory, fears of a drawn-out conflict continue. But with communications and transport links still largely severed to the region of six million people, it's difficult to know the situation on the ground.

"Our capacity to resist ultimately depends on the support we get from our people," Getachew said. "It is possible to have the scenario where we stop everything and turn all the people into soldiers."

He did not say how many people were actively fighting but said "our army is doing amazing things with limited numbers" and he claimed there had been tens of thousands of deaths among Ethiopian forces and those from neighbouring Eritrea, which the TPLF insists is also involved. Ethiopia's government denies that.

Getachew also acknowledged casualties on the TPLF side but didn't say how many.

Ethiopian forces at the weekend announced they had "full control" of the Tigray capital, Mekele, a city of a half-million people. Getachew said their side had made a "strategic withdrawal" from the city to minimise destruction.

It's not clear how many people were killed as Ethiopian forces moved in on Mekele but the International Committee of the Red Cross at the weekend said the city's largest hospital had run out of body bags and staff suspended other services to focus on the wounded.

An Ethiopian government spokesman did not immediately respond to a question about the estimated death toll in the conflict.

Australian Associated Press