Toronto – Days after the Ethiopian election, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) openly says, “A devastating war could break out”in the region.
It said so in a statement it released, calling on the international community to work on it to avoid it.
The TPLF dominated federal government power for over 27 years until it lost it following a pervasive anti-government protest across the country before Abiy Ahmed took office as Prime Minister in 2018.
The organization has now lost its status as a legitimate political entity with the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia. In Tigray, it has been increasingly facing political resistance from other ethnic Tigray opposition parties over the past few years.
There were also times in the past year during which it faced rebellion from armed groups organized as “Tigray Defence Force.” Several contingents already broke away from it, reorganized themselves in the Afar region as the “Tigray Peace Force” to challenge the TPLF militarily. The latter claims that it is fighting against the TPLF and Eritrea alliance to reignite conflict in the region.
In its latest release, the TPLF said Ethiopia is headed to a devastating conflict as the practice of dialogue and consensus is fading in favor of a unilateral decision and enforcing policy through military means.
The war will not be limited within the Ethiopian border, it added.
It is calling for a credible political process with the leadership and support of the international community.
In May, the TPLF reinstated the regional council before the 2020-2022 war and its chairman, Debretison Gebremichael, became president of the region after removing Tadesse Worede as interim president. It said the extension of Tadesse’s term violated the Pretoria Agreement, which ended the bloody war in November 2022.
The European Union and the US government engaged in a reported diplomatic effort during the same month to convince the TPLF to avoid another round of war.
borkena.com
