Amhara President Announces Plan to Regain “Illegally Taken Lands”

Amhara President, Temesgen Tiruneh  

Amhara President Announces Plan to Regain “Illegally Taken Lands”

By Ezega

The President of the Amhara region of Ethiopia Temesgen Tiruneh announced his administration's plan to regain lands that were “illegally taken” by the governing party of neighboring Tigray region.

Many ethnic Amhara people believe that several key zones, notably the Wolqait and Raya areas and other fertile lands, were annexed by Tigray when the current Ethiopian federation was mapped out in the early 1990s.

“The regional government would work for peaceful settlement of border dispute with Tigray region and strive for the return of Amhara lands,” Temesgen said while inaugurating infrastructure projects in the region.

“We believe Wolqite, Tsegede, and other areas belong to us. They were taken by a political conspiracy. We fear nobody to get them returned,” he added.

TPLF, which ruled the country for nearly three decades, has been ostracized by the federal government in Addis Ababa, raising the risk of military conflicts. Amhara government’s demand for the lands followed high political tensions between TPLF and the ruling Prosperity Party.

The people of Amhara believe some parts of southern and western Tigray are rightfully Amhara land. Political parties in the Amhara region have demanded that these areas be excluded from planned regional elections in Tigray state.

“We fight not for the lands but for the identity of people in those areas,” Amhara region Prosperity Party Representative Agegnehu Teshager said during the inaugural event.

TPLF leaders accuse Amhara politicians of orchestrating unrest in the ethnically mixed Raya and Wolkait areas of Tigray.

Meanwhile, the President of the Amhara regional state Temesgen Tiruneh said 85 insurgents having missions of committing deadly attacks in the Amhara region were apprehended.

The insurgents who were sent by the governing party of the neighboring Tigray region had entered into the Amhara region by changing their personalities as if they were churchgoers, crazy men, and priests.

According to the president, the insurgents were tasked to assassinate leaders of the regional state and attack religious and historical places.

He said TPLF has been conspiring to reclaim power at the center by killing the popular Oromo singer Hachalu Hundessa and by extension creating hostility and conflict between the people of Amhara and Oromo. He provided no further details or proof for these allegations.

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