tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7743642455877192442024-03-13T04:52:04.656-07:00Madote Eritrea News and ViewsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4407125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-35990875374702006032021-01-13T19:02:00.003-08:002021-01-13T19:07:12.032-08:00Tigray: Ethiopian army kills ex-Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jZDkmDbCN34/X_-zUMDJO6I/AAAAAAAAfa4/0ji35zHQL2QSFXtvyXZqv_q2rnAQfw_HQCLcBGAsYHQ/TPLF%2BMesfin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jZDkmDbCN34/X_-zUMDJO6I/AAAAAAAAfa4/0ji35zHQL2QSFXtvyXZqv_q2rnAQfw_HQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/TPLF%2BMesfin.jpg" /></a></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Seyoum Mesfin was Ethiopia's foreign minister for nearly two decades</span></i></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Tigray: Ethiopian army kills ex-Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/13/ethiopia-says-former-foreign-minister-killed-by-military" target="_blank">Aljazeera</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia says its forces have killed three members of the conflict-hit Tigray region’s former ruling party, including ex-Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin.</p><p><br /></p><p>The three Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) officials were killed after they refused to surrender to the military, the government’s task force for the crisis in Tigray said on Twitter on Wednesday. Five other TPLF members were captured, it added.</p><p><br /></p><p>Seyoum was Ethiopia’s foreign minister from 1991 until 2010. The two others killed were former Federal Affairs Minister Abay Tsehaye and ex-parliamentary chief whip Asmelash Woldeselassie.</p><p><br /></p><p>Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government declared victory in its conflict with the TPLF, a political party that previously governed the province, on November 28 after it regained control of the region’s capital, Mekelle.</p><p><br /></p><p>Fighting started after the TPLF allegedly attacked federal military bases at multiple locations in the region, triggering a war that has shaken the Horn of Africa.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Operations continue</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>Fugitive leaders of the TPLF had promised to continue to fight from the mountains of the region in northern Ethiopia, but their whereabouts are still unknown.</p><p><br /></p><p>The military said last week it had captured Sebhat Nega, a founding member of the TPLF.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the weekend, it said it had killed 15 TPLF members and captured eight others, according to state-run TV.</p><p><br /></p><p>Those captured reportedly included the region’s former president Abay Weldu, who was also a former chairman of the region’s ruling party.</p><p><br /></p><p>Air raids and battles since early November in Tigray are believed to have killed thousands of people. Fighting is continuing in some parts and more than two million people need aid, the United Nations said this week.</p><p><br /></p><p>Media have been unable to verify claims by either side since phone and internet connections to the Tigray region are down and access to the area is strictly controlled.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hJT9ky-QSQY" width="100%"></iframe></p><br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-19924027048692495142021-01-13T08:58:00.002-08:002021-01-13T09:00:37.719-08:00TPLF Clique Top Officials Seyoum Mesfin, Asmelash Woldeselassie And Abay Tsehaye Neutralized<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dx9FqyPwiik/X_8lwRsupcI/AAAAAAAAfas/OUE2fzru8wo529zMP5OIkw8GHIB5etEdQCLcBGAsYHQ/TPLF%2Bleaders.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="696" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-dx9FqyPwiik/X_8lwRsupcI/AAAAAAAAfas/OUE2fzru8wo529zMP5OIkw8GHIB5etEdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/TPLF%2Bleaders.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="color: #666666;">TPLF leaders Abay Teshaye, Seyoum Mesfin and Asmelash Woldeselassie have been neutralized</span></i><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>TPLF Clique Top Officials Seyoum Mesfin, Asmelash Woldeselassie And Abay Tsehaye Neutralized</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.fanabc.com/english/tplf-clique-top-officials-seyoum-mesfin-asmelash-woldeselassie-and-abay-tsehaye-neutralized/" target="_blank">FanaBC</a></p><p><br /></p><p>January 13, 2020 (FBC) – Members of the TPLF Clique high level leadership, Seyoum Mesfin, Asmelash Woldeselassie and Abay Tsehaye have been killed, the ENDF’s Deployment Department Head, Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew said.</p><p><br /></p><p>ENDF’s Deployment Department Head, Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew underlined that the national army and other security forces of the country including the federal police have continued their gallantry and victory in their mission.</p><p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Refusing to surrender to ENDF, Seyoum Mesfin, Abay Tsehaye, Asmelash Woldeselassie & Col Kiros Hagos have been killed in fire exchanges undertaken with the criminal clique’s personal security. Five key TPLF affiliated former army commanders have been apprehended.</p>— Ethiopia State of Emergency Fact Check (@SOEFactCheck) <a href="https://twitter.com/SOEFactCheck/status/1349385083438862336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-1048457104480175972021-01-12T18:21:00.000-08:002021-01-12T18:21:08.427-08:00Ethiopia warns Sudan over military build-up amid border tensions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zvqztqgJhA8/X_5XRqKjE6I/AAAAAAAAfag/MCTxr07TT1Ufxm71VeiIcR9EhfINoVIawCLcBGAsYHQ/Ethiopia%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zvqztqgJhA8/X_5XRqKjE6I/AAAAAAAAfag/MCTxr07TT1Ufxm71VeiIcR9EhfINoVIawCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Ethiopia%2B2.jpg" /></a></div><div><i><span style="color: #666666;">Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, H.E. Amb. Mufti Dina</span></i></div> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopia warns Sudan over military build-up amid border tensions</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/12/ethiopia-warns-sudan-over-border-dispute" target="_blank">Aljazeera</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia has accused Sudanese forces of pushing further into a contested border region that has been the site of deadly clashes in recent weeks, warning that its “peaceful” approach to the dispute “has its limit”.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sharing a 1,600km (994mile) frontier, the two neighbouring countries have long feuded over the al-Fashqa region, where Ethiopian farmers cultivate fertile land claimed by Sudan.</p><p><br /></p><p>The border tensions come at a time when Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are also trying to resolve a three-way dispute over the controversial dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).</p><p><br /></p><p>“The Sudanese side seems to be pushing in so as to inflame the situation on the ground,” Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti told reporters on Tuesday. “Is Ethiopia going to start a war? Well, we are saying let’s work on diplomacy.”</p><p><br /></p><p>“How long will Ethiopia continue to resolve the issue using diplomacy? Well, there is nothing that has no limit. Everything has a limit,” he told a media briefing in the capital, Addis Ababa.</p><p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Spokesperson of <a href="https://twitter.com/mfaethiopia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mfaethiopia</a>, H.E. Amb.<a href="https://twitter.com/mufti_dina?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mufti_dina</a>, gave the Ministry’s biweekly press briefing today to the media. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ethiopia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Ethiopia</a>-<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sudan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sudan</a> border issue,<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GERD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GERD</a>, diplomatic activities of missions & collaboration w/ citizens in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Europe?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Europe</a> are covered, among others. <a href="https://t.co/WFZaslns1B">https://t.co/WFZaslns1B</a> <a href="https://t.co/MPt6FDnllN">pic.twitter.com/MPt6FDnllN</a></p>— MFA Ethiopia🇪🇹 (@mfaethiopia) <a href="https://twitter.com/mfaethiopia/status/1348969574776135680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><p>In early December, Sudan accused Ethiopian “forces and militias” of ambushing Sudanese troops along the border, leaving four dead and more than 20 wounded.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia, for its part, said last week that Sudan’s military had “organised attacks by using heavy machine guns” and that “many civilians have been murdered and wounded”.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sudan’s information minister and government spokesman Feisal Mohamed Saleh said the country did not want war with Ethiopia but its forces would respond to any aggression.</p><p><br /></p><p>“We fear that these comments contain a hostile position towards Sudan. We ask of Ethiopia to stop attacking Sudanese territory and Sudanese farmers,” he told Reuters news agency.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Multiple issues</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Sudan said on December 31 it had taken control of all of the Sudanese territory in the area. Ethiopia says Sudan took advantage of its forces being distracted by the conflict in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, to occupy Ethiopian land and loot properties.</p><p><br /></p><p>The United Nations said in a report last week on the humanitarian situation in Tigray that there were reports of a military build-up on both sides of the border around the area.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Tigray conflict has spurred tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees to cross into Sudan.</p><p><br /></p><p>Separately, Ethiopia and Egypt said on Sunday that they reached a new impasse in the dispute over GERD. Egypt and Ethiopia separately blamed Sudanese objections to the framework for the talks.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia sees the dam as key to plans to become Africa’s largest power exporter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Egypt, which gets more than 90 percent of its scarce freshwater from the Nile, fears the dam across the Blue Nile could devastate its economy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sudan worries the project would affect its own dams, though it stands to benefit from access to possible cheap electricity.</p><p><br /></p><p>On Tuesday, Ethiopia’s Dina criticised both Egypt and Sudan for delaying the negotiations. “Are the two speaking the same language? More or less. The two are speaking the same language when it comes to stalling it.”</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-21772285369097947572021-01-10T16:32:00.002-08:002021-01-10T16:37:06.894-08:00Ethiopia captures TPLF bigwig Abay Woldu, 6 other TPLF fugitives<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YzyGUCXiNjE/X_uZw4lbB-I/AAAAAAAAfaU/I-C9dBGeGFQ9dNTohZzaNVfN51jWKyAEwCLcBGAsYHQ/Debretsion%2BGebremichael%2B-%2BAbay%2BWoldu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="960" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YzyGUCXiNjE/X_uZw4lbB-I/AAAAAAAAfaU/I-C9dBGeGFQ9dNTohZzaNVfN51jWKyAEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Debretsion%2BGebremichael%2B-%2BAbay%2BWoldu.jpg" /></a><br /><i><span style="color: #666666;">Abay Woldu (right) was the former president of Tigray State and is a senior member of the TPLF junta. He is described as a hardliner who desired to end Eritrea's independence through direct military occupation. He was behind the <a href="http://www.madote.com/2016/06/18-eritrean-soldiers-died-in-june-12.html" target="_blank">June 2016 failed military attack</a> against Eritrea that resulted in 200 Ethiopian soldiers and 18 Eritrean soldiers losing their lives.</span></i></p><p><br /></p><p><b>More Top TPLF Leaders Captured</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.fanabc.com/english/more-top-tplf-leaders-captured/" target="_blank">FanaBC</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Addis Ababa, January 10, 2021 (FBC) – The National Defence Force has captured seven more top leaders of the terrorist TPLF Junta.</p><p><br /></p><p>Head of Defence Force Deployment Department, Birg.Gen. Tesfaye Aylew, said actions were also taken aganist military officers who defected to the junta.</p><p><br /></p><p>The defence force accused them of exposing the army for attacks with a view to dismantling the country.</p><p><br /></p><p>Accordng to Birg.Gen. Tesfaye , the following top leaders of the junta were arrested:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Abay Woldu -Former President of Tigray regional state</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Dr Abrham Tekeste- Former Deputy President of Tigray</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Dr Redai Berhe- Former Head of Tigray Auditor General</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Dr Mulugeta Yirga- Former Head of Tigray Statistics Agency</p><p><br /></p><p>5. Equbay Berhe- Former Religious Affairs Monitering Head</p><p><br /></p><p>6. Getachew Teferi- Former Head of Tigray President Office as well as Head of Peace and Security</p><p><br /></p><p>7.Kiros Hagos- Former Head of Tigray Social Affairs Bureau</p><p><br /></p><p>Birg.Gen. Tesfaye further said actions were taken aganist the following officers:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. Maj. Gen Ibrahim Abduljelil- Former Head of Logistics of the defence force and also head of logistics of the junta</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Birg. Gen Gebrekidan Gebremariam- Former Head of indoctrination of the Defense Force who joind the junta after retirement</p><p><br /></p><p>3.Ten senior officers</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Two line officer</p><p><br /></p><p>5. One Deputy Commissioner of the regional state</p><p><br /></p><p>Birg.Gen. Tesfaye added that more members of the TPLF group were captured in the operation.</p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-35934359588517675522021-01-08T08:22:00.003-08:002021-01-08T08:22:26.358-08:00Sibhat Nega, founding father of the TPLF, apprehended<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SLMhwDU7UpU/X_iGb-t9z4I/AAAAAAAAfaA/FhezBTtVSeA_eJUkCY5LnhkCWj5FMc7MgCLcBGAsYHQ/Sibhat%2BNega.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-SLMhwDU7UpU/X_iGb-t9z4I/AAAAAAAAfaA/FhezBTtVSeA_eJUkCY5LnhkCWj5FMc7MgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Sibhat%2BNega.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Senior TPLF officials. Sebhat Nega is the man on the far righ</span></i>t</div><br /><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Sibhat Nega, founding father of the TPLF, apprehended</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.ethiopiancitizen.com/2021/01/sibhat-nega-founding-father-of-the-tplf-apprehended.html.html" target="_blank">EthiopianCitizen</a></p><p><br /></p><p> Sibhat Nega, one of the founding father of the TPLF rebel group, was apprehended, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ethiopianewsagency/posts/2849120765330384" target="_blank">reported</a> Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew to Ethiopian News Agency (ENA).</p><p><br /></p><p>"Sibhat Nega was caught hidden in a cave where he was carried by his men who were with him", said the army's Head of Operations, Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew.</p><p> </p><p>Sibhat Nega, born 1934 and affectionately called as "Aboy" meaning "Father" by his followers, is the founding father of the Marxist Leninist group Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in 1975. A hardline Tigrayan nationalist, his original stand against the leader of the DERG, Mengistu Hailemariam, was that the country should be broken up into ethnic states. </p><p> </p><p>Head of the TPLF from 1979-1989, he was replaced by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi at its Third Congress. Since then, he has been at the periphery but remains respected. He was the ruling party’s economic department chairman, a major supporter of Meles Zenawi during the war with Eritrea and its aftermath.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sibhat Nega's wife was also reported to have been caught yesterday by the ENDF along with Seku Toure, a founding member of the TPLF who publicly admitted TPLF assault on the ENDF on November 04, 2020.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sibhat Nega's son Tekeste Sibhat Nega also took arms to defend TPLF but was killed in the conflict in Tigray on December 19, 2020.</p><p><br /></p><p>"Aboy" revered family loyalty to maintain tight grip on the party's leadership and its business conglomerate. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-53974761882610335202020-12-31T17:48:00.005-08:002020-12-31T17:48:43.781-08:00 A Sequel to the Tekle Berhe’s Rebuttal Open Letter to Esat News Analyst <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BrbuNkjXPjk/X-5-nfJJIZI/AAAAAAAAfZw/t4uqlJK0Z5EWQR5yDqqO0iqm2q7fkejcACLcBGAsYHQ/ESAT.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BrbuNkjXPjk/X-5-nfJJIZI/AAAAAAAAfZw/t4uqlJK0Z5EWQR5yDqqO0iqm2q7fkejcACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/ESAT.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">ESAT journalists</span></i></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b> A Sequel to the Tekle Berhe’s Rebuttal Open Letter to Esat News Analyst </b></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is my considered opinion that using any metric for measuring authenticity and professional journalism in the dissemination of none print media information in Ethiopia, Esat news Channel would easily top the list. And I can testify that for many of my contacts, Esat is one of their reliable source of credible information in respect the current developments in Ethiopia. Given the proliferation of disinformation and unethical reporting, the diligence and professionalism of the staff at Esat is laudable. Because of my belief in their sense of fairness and exactitude of truthful reporting, I enjoy their show and would not miss the Esat’s daily streaming. Good flow of ideas and clear language. Need I say telling the truth and insightful topical analysis makes one’s work admirable! </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">However as the African proverb puts it subtly, ‘<i>Every Market Place Has its own Mad Man</i>’ so does Esat has its weakest link in the person of the gentleman by the name Ato Gizaw Legese. What he said about the future relation between Eritrea and Ethiopia is extremely immature and insensitive. I do not believe that his contribution meets the standard of the very informative, constructive and educative Esat’s daily show. But thanks God the rest of the team members do not share his illogical and outrageous thoughts. Sisay has the wisdom and intellectual grounding to put things right.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">When I read the very eloquent rebuttal open letter written by my compatriot Tekle Berhe, I thought enough was said to expose the reprehensible comment of this gentleman. But then I realised he is not alone in harbouring such infantile and regressive dreams of securing access to the Red Sea by invading Eritrean sovereign territory because Ethiopia has a population 20 times greater than that of Eritrea. What an incredible logic! If so, then why not annex Djibouti which is 104 times smaller than Ethiopia in terms of population? </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="text-align: justify;">What Ato Gizaw said was not a simple guff but a deceptive red-sea syndrome that afflicts some Ethiopian elite notably the few Amhara ethnic chauvinists uncleansed from their archaic mind set. It is also worthwhile that the following former TPLF members should be included in the above category of war mongers.</span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">General Tsadikan who ones asserted in Tigrigna that Ethiopia has unfinished business of war with Eritrea - </span><b style="text-align: justify;">ምስ ኤርትራ ዘይተዛዘመ ውግእ ኣሎና</b><span style="text-align: justify;">Genral Abebe Teklehaimanot who has been advocationg with impunity for the acquiring the Eritrea Port of Assab by all means including military power </span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">Siye Abraha ( not sure of his tiltle) but one of the drivers of the invasion of Eritrea in 1998 </span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">Gebru Asrat one of the exponents of the agenda of annexing the Aseb Port of Eritrea and known for his resentful stance on Eritrean independence hooked as he is to disiformation and falsification of events of the Eritrean struggle of liberation. This man is also very hostile to anything Eritrean.</span></li></ol><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And now here we have Ato Gizaw audaciously proposing the revision of the internationally recognized border between the two countries. He states that Ethiopia should take up the issue of access to Red Sea and demand Eritrea to cede the port of Aseb on account of Ethiopia’s large population. What a triviality of thought. For this gentleman and other likeminded chauvinists, mighty Ethiopia has God given divine right to acquire land of a sovereign country as it wishes. The half a century period of fighting Eritreans endured never mind the loss of hundreds of 000’s lost lives, to realize their freedom and sovereignty would count for nothing as far as this simple-minded fellow is concerned. He thinks his magical proposal will deliver the goods. What Ato Gizaw and his cohorts fail to understand is that such futile, xenophobic rhetoric signals reverting to the resurgence of state of affairs of the defunct <b><i>ancient regime</i></b>. Realignment of new strategic alliances detrimental to Ethiopia in particular and the Horn area in general cannot be ruled out should this posturing of projecting military power to achieve ill-thought-out policy agenda is pursued. Eritrea would also be forced to reconsider its strategic partnership. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">But here I want to draw the attention of the reader to the fact that Ato Gizaw also seems to share his standpoint regarding the issue of Red Sea access with General Abebe Teklehaimanot. The writer has personally heard Ato Gizaw absolving the General from the TPLF’s betrayal of Ethiopian. Ato Gizaw stated that he personally has high regard for the general as he knows him quite well and that the general’s attitude is that of a patriot and as such a good Ethiopian. He says he learned this from their discussions on national issues as they chat and drink coffee together. Thus a witness from ‘’Coffee mate’’. But one could not disagree more. It is also mind boggling that some Ethiopian elites either intentionally or out of ignorance never re-count the factual history relation between Eritrea and Ethiopia as it actually existed in the past. Invariably the narration is reeled with distortion, falsehood and denial.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Let me thus highlight the following critically important historical facts that every Ethiopian including school children should know and embrace as the best roadmap for the future of these two beautiful brotherly people:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="text-align: justify;">The configuration of the boundary between Eritrea and Ethiopia is a direct result of colonialism. This means the countries did not fell from heaven with their current shape. The borders have been drawn and shaped by the colonising powers during the scramble for Africa and anchored on legally binding treaties with mutual recognition and acceptance by the parties involved. All the boundaries we see between countries are of such nature and have treated as sacrosanct delineation lines. Thus no surprise here. </span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">Ethiopia has never had a direct access and jurisdictional sovereignty over any Eritrean coastal area prior to the dismantling of the federal arrangement and subsequent annexation of the country.</span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">Eritrea has never been an integral and inseparable part of central Ethiopian power. Yes at end of the II WW Eritrea was forcefully federated with Ethiopia by the UN as a temporarily measure at the behest of powerful member States pending the future status of Eritrea to be decided by the Eritreans in a plebiscite. However Ethiopia unilaterally repealed the federal arrangement and annexed the country. This triggered the decades of armed struggle which resulted in the actualisation of Eritrean independence as a sovereign country with its foundational territorial outline and member of the UN. </span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">I just want to remind all those who want to know the truth -Eritrea did not secede from Ethiopia. Eritrea was liberated by the blood of its people. Eritrea has never been a part of Ethiopia and only an integral part or region of a country be can be said to have seceded. Nor was it assisted by TPLF as is often falsely asserted by many elite Ethiopians and marshalled as a proxy to accuse the now buried Tigrean organisation. </span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">Those Ethiopians who push for this mutually destructive notion must accept the stark reality that the Eritrean Red Sea coastline is Eritrean and jettison the inane syndrome of outlet to the sea and stop building castles in the sky. </span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">I also urge them to understand at Ethiopia can fully avail itself to meet its maritime services with mutual agreement of the two countries. Incidentally this has been the stand of the Eritrean government all along.</span></li><br /><li><span style="text-align: justify;">Eritrea’s vision is a vision of reciprocity. What Eritrea wants is to partner and cooperate for shared prosperity, equity and mutual respect and recognition.</span></li></ol><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As I conclude I just once again want to remind our Ethiopian friends and brothers that Eritrea did not secede from Ethiopia. Eritrea was liberated by the blood of its people. Eritrea has never been a part of Ethiopia and only an integral part or region of a country be can be said to have seceded. What TPLF tried but disastrously failed implies an aimed secession. Eritrea was contemptuously annexed and brought under brutal Ethiopian occupation against the will of its people. This is the true history and forget your deliberately distorted versions. It took decades of painful struggle to rectify this historical anomaly and secure the country’s rightful independence and sovereign status. This is the stark reality. Once and for all, please come to this realization, and contribute to the success of the evolving rapprochement envisioned to deliver on mutual prosperity for the amazing peoples of the two sovereign countries. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p style="text-align: justify;">And as for the descent, fair minded, unbiased and patriotic ESAT journalists including Sisay, Mesay, Petros, Wondemagegnehu and Fasil keep the good work of building bridges and telling the truth as you have the best interest of the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea at heart. My only regret as I write this article is that we (I mean here both Eritreans and Ethiopians) need not be writing about such subject areas had it not been for the regressive and obstructive old fashion rhetoric from people like Ato Gizaw. I hope such unhelpful thoughts will fade away so that we may contribute and work for progressive and forward looking cordial and complementary relationship between the people of the two countries who share a lot.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">If I have anything to say to Ato Gizaw is this: your ill-judged comment hurts deeply as it scratches the wounds of the entire Eritrean population. Take the honourable step to apologise and say sorry. Else you can turn 360 if you wish. Eritrea is not for turning!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Haile </p><p style="text-align: justify;">The Netherlands </p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><p></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-17383225605138622742020-12-20T04:21:00.005-08:002020-12-20T04:21:57.982-08:00Ethiopia Offers A 10 Million Birr Reward In Hunt For Whereabouts Of TPLF Clique Members<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yMCct-DkNtk/X99BxOF-EuI/AAAAAAAAfZk/QyDTV--Q1-w4f-9_3GdE1hQdpbskXQ0QQCLcBGAsYHQ/A-Let-General.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="750" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yMCct-DkNtk/X99BxOF-EuI/AAAAAAAAfZk/QyDTV--Q1-w4f-9_3GdE1hQdpbskXQ0QQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/A-Let-General.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopia Offers A 10 Million Birr Reward In Hunt For Whereabouts Of TPLF Clique Members</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.fanabc.com/english/ethiopia-offers-a-10-million-birr-reward-in-hunt-for-whereabouts-of-tplf-cliqe-members/" target="_blank">FanaBC</a></p><p><br /></p><p>In a press conference held on Friday, Community Information Department Head at the National Defense Force, Let.-Gen Asrat Denero announced an offer amounting 10 Million Birr in rewards for information on the whereabouts of members of the TPLF Clique members.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reward is be offered to anyone who discloses the whereabouts of members of the TPLF Clique who are being hunted amid the law enforcement operation underway following the atrocity the renegade group committed against the national army troops and nation at large.</p><p><br /></p><p>The government is working to bring culprits to justice, restore infrastructure and rehabilitate affected people following the completion of the law enforcement operation in Tigray.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mekele City and several towns in Tigray region are returning to normalcy and getting back to the previous day to day activities.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-72524339928557496642020-12-15T21:04:00.004-08:002020-12-15T21:05:11.950-08:00Eritrea: Saudi Arabia’s Delegation Led by Foreign Minister Arrive in Asmara<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZbMC2GB0yZA/X9mUSO-zTsI/AAAAAAAAfZY/4Z0c8zJOel494hCVYaZ0bNaTnDQqSQ1owCLcBGAsYHQ/isaias.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1808" data-original-width="2048" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZbMC2GB0yZA/X9mUSO-zTsI/AAAAAAAAfZY/4Z0c8zJOel494hCVYaZ0bNaTnDQqSQ1owCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/isaias.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="color: #666666;">President Isaias Afwerki meeting with Saudi Arabia’s delegation led by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud</span></i><br /><br /><p></p><p><b>Saudi Arabia’s Delegation Led by Foreign Minister Arrive in Asmara</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>By Yemane G. Meskel | MoI</p><p><br /></p><p>President Isaias Afwerki met this evening at State House Saudi Arabia’s delegation led by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. The delegation delivered messages from King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as well as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to President Isaias.</p><p><br /></p><p>The two sides held extensive talks on bilateral ties and regional issues of mutual importance. Affirming that the two countries hold convergent views and positions on all these matters, they agreed to bolster their ties and to establish a Joint Committee to implement the common vision.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">President Isaias Afwerki met this evening at State House Saudi Arabia's delegation led by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. The delegation delivered messages from King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as well as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to President Isaias <a href="https://t.co/CXmhPulZOI">pic.twitter.com/CXmhPulZOI</a></p>— Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) <a href="https://twitter.com/hawelti/status/1338908831494119424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The two sides held extensive talks on bilateral ties & regional issues of mutual importance. Affirming that the two countries hold convergent views & positions on all these matters, they agreed to bolster their ties & to establish a Joint Committee to implement the common vision <a href="https://t.co/mgH5UvGmIL">pic.twitter.com/mgH5UvGmIL</a></p>— Yemane G. Meskel (@hawelti) <a href="https://twitter.com/hawelti/status/1338911145487425538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 15, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-1464748124585301542020-12-13T03:25:00.003-08:002020-12-13T03:25:17.776-08:00Ethiopia: Tigray Provisional Administration Cabinet To Take Office Tomorrow<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Ptgo2aNkRo/X9X6CHdKEfI/AAAAAAAAfZE/h3rjNVI2J-MeKFDDoa4v3U0EKyRsYmjnACLcBGAsYHQ/New%2BTigray%2Bgovernment.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="760" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7Ptgo2aNkRo/X9X6CHdKEfI/AAAAAAAAfZE/h3rjNVI2J-MeKFDDoa4v3U0EKyRsYmjnACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/New%2BTigray%2Bgovernment.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopia: Tigray Provisional Administration Cabinet To Take Office Tomorrow</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.fanabc.com/english/tigray-provisional-administration-cabinet-to-take-office-tomorrow/" target="_blank">FanaBC</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Cabinet of the Provisional Administration of Tigray is to take office starting from tomorrow, Chief Executive Dr. Mulu Nega stated.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dr. Mulu Nega, Chief Executive of the Provisional Administration of Tigray has today briefed media on what is currently undergoing in the region.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dr. Mulu urged government employees who were shocked by the actions of the TPLF Junta to return to work by Monday.</p><p><br /></p><p>He also said that if there is a government employee who does not return to work on that date, he will be considered to have resigned voluntarily.</p><p><br /></p><p>The government jointly with concerned bodes has been undertaking activities to restore services in all public institutions and private business organizations in the region, Dr. Mulu noted.</p><p><br /></p><p>He said the provisional administration is exerting efforts to ensure that all service rendering organizations are open to the public and residents return to their daily activities safely.</p><p><br /></p><p>Saying that the interim administration has set up its cabinet, Dr. Mulu noted that cabinet that has been set up so far will take office as of tomorrow, and public servants who quitted job due to shocking belligerent act of the TPLF Junta will return to work by Monday.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most of towns of Tigray including Mekele city have returned to normalcy, said Dr. Mulu calling all business entities to start operation from tomorrow.</p><p><br /></p><p>He also urged any armed individuals in the region to disarm and handover their weapons to nearby office of government security bodies till Tuesday December 15, 2020.</p><p><br /></p><p>Home to home raid will be carried out, he said, adding that anyone found bearing weapon will be accountable by law.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-9098470526104526782020-12-12T21:39:00.006-08:002020-12-12T21:39:46.490-08:00Ethiopia: Post-TPLF Part I “Militarily Defeated”<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Tpj1E6a4GI/X9WojU_pKYI/AAAAAAAAfY0/hMy7xE2451EJzkAfkJ6sNwgP0RVox4o3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s828/abiy%2Bahmed%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="828" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Tpj1E6a4GI/X9WojU_pKYI/AAAAAAAAfY0/hMy7xE2451EJzkAfkJ6sNwgP0RVox4o3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/abiy%2Bahmed%2B2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Ethiopian PM Abiy Amhed with his Republican Guard </span></i></div><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Ethiopia: Post-TPLF Part I “Militarily Defeated”</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By Worku Aberra </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now that the military operation against the TPLF’s rebellion has successfully concluded, Ethiopia must embark on a democratic order free from the vestiges of the TPLF. The first order of business in creating the new Ethiopia is outlawing the TPLF as a terrorist organization. The government has the legal, moral, and political obligation to ban the TPLF for its terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and breach of the constitution.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The TPLF has engaged in terrorist activities in Ethiopia for more than 45 years. During its guerrilla years, it used terror to subdue its opponents, to extract food from the farmers, to fight the military government, and to eliminate internal dissent. In the 1980s the US State Department rightfully labelled it a terrorist organization. During its stay in power, it practiced terrorism selectively and broadly. The Prime Minister <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/6/23/torture-state-terrorism-and-ethiopias-transformation/" target="_blank">acknowledged in 2018</a> that the EPRDF government, a government dominated by the TPLF, was a terrorist state. He apologized to the Ethiopian people for the TPLF’s brutalities.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3Oi33Dmgl0&ab_channel=AmharaMassMediaAgency" target="_blank">Caches of explosives</a>, satellite cell phones, training manuals in Arabic, and audio instructional material, reportedly for undertaking international terrorism, have been discovered in one of the TPLF’s underground bunkers in Mai Kadra. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/30/ethiopias-abiy-ahmed-denies-civilians-killed-in-tigray-operation" target="_blank">told parliament</a> on November 30 that from 2016 up to now, the TPLF has participated in all of the 113 conflicts that have taken place in Ethiopia, most of which were terrorist acts, along with staging the unsuccessful rebellion against the government.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The TPLF has been militarily defeated, but it has vowed to continue its armed confrontation by resorting to terrorism. In the coming weeks and months, as the military relaxes its control over Tigray, the TPLF will most likely start targeting civilians, institutions, and infrastructure in Tigray and elsewhere in Ethiopia. An organization with such atrocious history of terrorism deserves to be outlawed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is unclear as to why the government is hesitant to declare the TPLF a terrorist organization. The evidence is compelling. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvf918P-ADU&ab_channel=AmharaMassMediaAgency" target="_blank">Members of parliament</a> have demanded that the TPLF be declared a terrorist organization and that its leaders be brought to justice, individually or collectively, for all the crimes the TPLF has committed against the Ethiopian people.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The government may be concerned about the political ramifications of declaring the TPLF a terrorist organization. It may wish to protect the previous members of the TPLF who are still in the government or are now active in the Prosperity Party, some of whom are charged with leading the provisional government in Tigray, but such individuals should face the consequences of their actions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The government may also be anxious about other previous or current government officials, at the regional or national level, who may have abated, facilitated, or committed terrorist acts. If such persons exist, they should face the court of law. Whatever political computations the government may be considering, it doesn’t excuse its reluctance to declare the TPLF a terrorist organization. Failing to do so is a serious dereliction of responsibility.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Declaring the TPLF a terrorist organization will weaken its standing with the international community, prevent it from using its looted financial assets stashed away in and outside Ethiopia, block it from legally participating in Ethiopia’s political affairs, and curb its support in Tigray and the rest of Ethiopia.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>The TPLF’s Treasonous Act</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Before the war started, Mesfin Seyoum, one of the founders and current leaders of the TPLF, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mesfin+Seyoum%2C+Nov+1%2C+2020.+" target="_blank">ascertained on November 1 that foreign</a> governments would invade Ethiopia if Eritrea intervened in the impending armed conflict between the TPLF and the Ethiopian government, and that Ethiopia would become another Libya, Syria, or Yemen. He guaranteed foreign intervention, but his certainty raises a few questions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Why was he so sure about foreign intervention in Ethiopia? Did the TPLF agree to foreign intervention in a quid pro quo arrangement with a foreign government, possibly with the Egyptian government? We don’t know the answer for now. We may find out the truth in the future, but any political organization that has expressed its willingness to collaborate with a foreign invader engages in a treasonous act and must be proscribed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The TPLF’s aborted revolt brought Ethiopia to the brink of a civil war. The TPLF tried to destroy the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF). Had its plan to annihilate the ENDF succeeded, it would have rendered Ethiopia vulnerable to foreign aggression. It also violated Ethiopia’s current constitution, a constitution written by the TPLF itself.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">When the TPLF-dominated EPRDF government was in power, since it was impossible to oppose the regime peacefully, some political organizations, including the OLF, Ginbot 7, and The Ogaden People’s Liberation Front, were forced to resort to armed struggle to effect change, but the regime outlawed them because they advocated the use of violence to overthrow the government, in violation of the EPRDF’s constitution.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Article 9.3 of the <a href="https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/et/et007en.pdf" target="_blank">constitution</a> reads, “ It is prohibited to assume state power in any manner other than that provided under the Constitution”. Further, article 31 states, “ Organizations formed, in violation of appropriate laws, or to illegally subvert the constitutional order, or which promote such activities are prohibited”.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The objective of the TPLF’s failed rebellion was to replace the current government with a provisional government. In staging the rebellion, the TPLF violated the constitution and should therefore be prohibited from functioning as a political entity. That is what its own law specifies.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">All political systems, democratic or non-democratic, defend themselves against political groups that espouse violence to achieve their objectives: they outlaw such groups. Democracies respect freedom of expression and freedom of association, but reject violence as a means of obtaining political objectives. In Spain, the separatist Basque party Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) is banned. In Canada, the Front de libération du Québec (the FLQ) was outlawed. Systemic survival requires systemic self-defense. Ethiopia’s nascent democracy should defend itself from a TPLF assault in the future, by banning the TPLF.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is ample evidence that the TPLF has committed war crimes. Media reports indicate that the TPLF has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYS6Bm-jRxs&ab_channel=EBC" target="_blank">forcefully recruited underage children</a> and the elderly to fight in the armed conflict. Its youth wing massacred <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/24/over-600-people-killed-by-tigrayan-youth-group-commission" target="_blank">600 civilians at Mai Kadra</a>, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Council. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ccGg9ggdhI&ab_channel=EBC" target="_blank">Survivors</a> tell stories of how the TPLF executed the soldiers it “captured” during its assault at night on the bases of the Northern Command. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gp4TBC6n4Y&ab_channel=EBC" target="_blank">Mass graves</a> of TPLF victims have been discovered in Humera, Mai Kadra, and other places. Forceful enlisting of child soldiers, massacres of civilians, execution of captured soldiers constitute war crimes. A political group that has committed war crimes must be outlawed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The TPLF has been inciting hatred against the Amharas for more than 40 years. No government in history has carried out such a concerted hate propaganda against an ethnic group that it rules as the TPLF has done against the Amharas. In its program, political discourse, every pomp and circumstance political event, the TPLF has vilified the Amharas as “chauvinists”.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">In all of his political speeches, Meles Zenawi routinely condemned the Amharas as “chauvinists”. The EPRDF’s program identifies “chauvinism” as the enemy that must “be dealt with successfully” (see articles 1.5 and 4.8). The TPLF’s hateful propaganda against the Amharas for more than four decades has resulted in their mass killings.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The TPLF has also committed acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. There is evidence that the TPLF deceitfully sterilized Amhara women and underfunded development projects in the Amhara Killil (I will discuss the issues in a subsequent installment). It planned and executed the displacement of millions of Amharas, Gedeos, Oromos, Somalis, and other Ethiopians. A political group that incites hatred against an ethnic group and has committed genocidal acts must be banned.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>An Independent International Inquiry</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">While the Ethiopian people are familiar with the TPLF’s atrocities, the international community is largely unaware of the TPLF’s crimes thanks to the propaganda work of its supporters in the western media, academia, and thinktanks; and the efforts of its lobbyists in influencing the attitude of NGOs, Western governments, and multilateral organizations in its favour.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">The government should invite multilateral human rights organizations such as The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Amnesty International, the European Commission of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate the TPLF’s crimes. A comprehensive International investigation will demonstrate to the world the TPLF’s crimes and why it deserves to be outlawed.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>__</i></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>Worku Aberra</i></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Worku is a professor of economics at Dawson College, Montreal, Canada. He did his graduate studies in development economics at McGill University; currently he is doing research on child labour in Ethiopia.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b> </b></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-55313762570339219082020-12-12T21:03:00.003-08:002020-12-12T21:03:18.359-08:00Expert: No Evidence UAE Drones Are Being Used in Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2vQUR6xcetI/X9WgVWrtwiI/AAAAAAAAfYM/PZuLFgEZZtYWgcV0gAKjbbwG4lC6GJaQgCLcBGAsYHQ/Chinese%2Bdrone.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="1200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-2vQUR6xcetI/X9WgVWrtwiI/AAAAAAAAfYM/PZuLFgEZZtYWgcV0gAKjbbwG4lC6GJaQgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Chinese%2Bdrone.jpg" /></a><br /><i><span style="color: #999999;">A Chinese-made Wing Loong II drone is on display during the 2017 Dubai Airshow. (Karim Sahib/AFP via Getty Images)</span></i></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Expert: No Evidence UAE Drones Are Being Used in Ethiopia’s Tigray Conflict</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/expert-no-evidence-uae-drones-are-being-used-ethiopias-tigray-conflict" target="_blank">Salem Solomon</a> | VOANews</p><p><br /></p><p>Forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region have accused the federal government of partnering with the United Arab Emirates to use weaponized drones stationed in Eritrea. A security analyst tells VOA the drones are in an Eritrean port city but there is no evidence they are being used in the Tigray conflict.</p><p><br /></p><p>Wim Zwijnenburg, a humanitarian disarmament project leader for PAX, an organization that studies global conflict and researches the use of military technologies, has been analyzing satellite imagery collected by the U.S. company Planet Lab. He determined that drones operated by the UAE are stationed in the Eritrean port city of Assab. The 20-meter wingspan, Chinese-made drones known as the Wing Loong II are capable of dropping bombs or shooting missiles.</p><p><br /></p><p>“It's true that there are Emirati drones based in Eritrea,” Zwijnenburg told VOA via Skype. “However, the next question is whether they have been used in Ethiopia. And, in that regard, we couldn't find any indication that the Emiratis would fly drones in Ethiopia.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Fresh reports this week suggest that Eritrean troops are involved in the conflict in the Tigray region. Citing five unnamed diplomats, Reuters reported this week that “evidence of Eritrean involvement cited in the U.S. view of the month-long war includes satellite images, intercepted communications and anecdotal reports from Tigray region.” </p><p><br /></p><p>The report comes after repeated claims by the Tigrayan side of the use of UAE military drones by the Ethiopian military.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tigrayan politician Getachew Reda tweeted last month that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed “is now enlisting the support of UAE drones based in Assab in his devastating war against the people of Tigray.” A regional media outlet, Tigray TV, reiterated the claim on its Facebook account, saying “highly sophisticated weaponry, which included drones and other technologies that cannot be found on the African continent, were extensively used when attacking the people of Tigray.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia said it has conducted “targeted strikes” against strategic targets in the Tigray region. Major General Yilma Merdasa, chief of the Ethiopian Air Force, told VOA Amharic the air force is attacking with warplanes, missiles and UAVs—unmanned aerial vehicles. He added: “We have trained and armed ourselves and we are doing the work from the center [from Ethiopia] and other assertions are deception. We are destroying the enemy with a force we built ourselves.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Zwijnenburg noted that Ethiopia has the fourth-largest air force in Africa, flying MiG-23 and Sukhoi-27 jet fighters. He said mobile phone video uploaded to Facebook appears to show fighter jets flying over the city of Mekelle, in northern Ethiopia.</p><p><br /></p><p>“We could not find any indication that those drones have been used by the Ethiopian Air Force but only found indications that piloted aircraft jet fighters have carried out targeted strikes,” he said. “So, in that sense, it's good to look at the statements made and fact-check those with what we know from the ground and from open-source information and satellite imagery.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Claiming victory, the federal government said the Tigray incursion is a limited military action against some members of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) after it attacked a military base. But the TPLF calls it a war against Tigray, one that its forces continue fighting.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>UAE drones involved in Libya</b></p><p><br /></p><p>There is precedent for the UAE piloting weaponized drones on the African continent. According to the U.N., the UAE has conducted drone strikes in favor of the Libyan National Army led by rebel General Khalifa Hafter, while Turkey has conducted drone strikes in support of Libya’s Government of National Accord.</p><p><br /></p><p>“States have an interest in drones because it removes the risk from the pilot, they're relatively cheap and they can stay over a large area for a long time,” Zwijnenburg said. “Making them very, sort of, a seductive way to use lethal force in operations where you otherwise wouldn't expose your own troops to risk because [they] could have been killed.”</p><p><br /></p><p>The militaries of Nigeria and Algeria also operate armed drones, Zwijnenburg said. The U.S. has operated drone bases in Niger and in Somalia in recent years, and previously had one in southern Ethiopia that was shut down in 2016.</p><p><br /></p><p>Any outside drone intervention in the Tigray conflict is not likely to slip by unnoticed by international observers, Zwijnenburg says.</p><p><br /></p><p>“Our concern,” he says, “is that this could lower the threshold for the use of lethal force in disputed areas or conflict disputes, [where] military drones are operated in those kinds of proxy wars or shadow wars, in areas where we don't have access to, where it's hard to control, to fact check claims they make.”</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-15072752268743127702020-12-09T18:27:00.005-08:002020-12-09T18:33:42.173-08:00Eritrean troops not fighting in Ethiopia: UN chief<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WLjlWVh61GQ/X9GHXfi_fRI/AAAAAAAAfX4/nrMiDiSW5sULJQkZycv9pEdw9hU4rmpRQCLcBGAsYHQ/Antonio%2BGuterres.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WLjlWVh61GQ/X9GHXfi_fRI/AAAAAAAAfX4/nrMiDiSW5sULJQkZycv9pEdw9hU4rmpRQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Antonio%2BGuterres.jpg" /></a><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Antonio Guterres, UN chief </span></i></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Eritrean troops not fighting in Ethiopia: UN chief</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-12/10/c_139577070.htm" target="_blank">Xinhuanet</a> </p><p><br /></p><p>Dec. 9 – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that there is no proof of Eritrean troops inside Ethiopia, where government forces are fighting rebels in the northernmost region of Tigray.</p><p><br /></p><p>“We have no proof of the presence of Eritrean troops inside Ethiopia. I confronted the (Ethiopian) prime minister with that question, and he guaranteed to me that they have not entered the Tigrayan territory, that the only area where they are is the area that corresponded to the disputed territory between the two countries that in the peace agreement was decided to give back to Eritrea,” Guterres told reporters.</p><p><br /></p><p>“So this was the testimony that was given to me by the prime minister when I confronted him exactly with that question.”</p><p><br /></p><p>There are media reports saying that Eritrean troops have crossed into Ethiopia to help Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s military campaign against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).</p><p><br /></p><p>Since Nov. 4, the Ethiopian government has been undertaking military operations against the TPLF, which rules Ethiopia’s northernmost Tigray state. The federal government’s operations followed the TPLF’s attack on a command base of the Ethiopian Defense Force in Mekelle city, capital of Tigray.</p><p><br /></p><p>The United Nations has information of sporadic fighting in different areas of Ethiopia. But it also has information that there was in the last few days a progressive increase of security and control, said Guterres. “But again, these are information that I am not in a position to fully confirm.”</p><p><br /></p><p>On humanitarian access to the Tigray region, Guterres said the United Nations and Ethiopia are in a second agreement.</p><p><br /></p><p>“The only thing I can say is that, after the first agreement that was not possible to implement immediately, we have now a second agreement for joint assessment missions in relation to humanitarian needs between the UN and Ethiopia, to make sure that there is full access to the whole of the territory and full capacity to start humanitarian operations based on real needs and without any kind of discrimination,” said Guterres.</p><p><br /></p><p>A UN convoy was shot at by Ethiopian troops in Tigray on Sunday, triggering the alarm at the world body. The United Nations has not provided details of the incident.</p><p><br /></p><p>“The UN has seen the reports of a UN convoy being shot at in Tigray province. These are alarming reports, and we are engaging at the highest level with the federal government to express our concerns and avoid any such incidents in the future,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres, on Tuesday. </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-55495450456218750452020-12-08T08:47:00.009-08:002020-12-08T09:18:47.573-08:00U.S. thinks Eritrea has joined Ethiopian war, diplomats say<div><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tzFbgfOZXoY/X8-vuseAaJI/AAAAAAAAfXs/8t3PQesMP_0hS-jqJVSJ4dNeBFomshSdACLcBGAsYHQ/Eritrean%2Bmilitary%2Basmara%2Bparade.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="1600" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tzFbgfOZXoY/X8-vuseAaJI/AAAAAAAAfXs/8t3PQesMP_0hS-jqJVSJ4dNeBFomshSdACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Eritrean%2Bmilitary%2Basmara%2Bparade.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Eritrean military parade in Asmara</span></i></div><br /></i></div><p></p><i><b><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div>Madote</b></i><b><i>'</i></b><i><b>s take: </b>U.S. diplomats believe Eritrea has been participating in the law enforcement operation in Tigray since mid-November. If this allegation is proven to be true, then that means Eritrean troops were the main forces who liberated the towns of Humera, Badme, Sheraro, Shire, Axum, Adwa, Adigrat, Hawzen, Idaga Hamus, and Mekelle. TPLF even claims 90% of the opposing fighters in Tigray are Eritrean soldiers. Only time will tell who is telling the truth. In the fog of war, truth is the first causality. I am still skeptical and I encourage all of you reading this article be too. TPLF has a long history of disinformation to serve its interests. I see no reason why it would begin to tell the truth during its eleventh hour. <br /></i><br /><br /><p></p><p><b>U.S. thinks Eritrea has joined Ethiopian war, diplomats say</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/ethiopia-conflict-eritrea/exclusive-u-s-thinks-eritrea-has-joined-ethiopian-war-diplomats-say-idUSKBN28I1OX" target="_blank">Phil Stewart, David Lewis</a> | Reuters</p><p><br /></p><p>The United States believes Eritrean soldiers have crossed into Ethiopia to help Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government battle a rebellious northern force, despite denials from both nations, a U.S. government source and five regional diplomats said.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy and Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki signed a peace pact ending two decades of hostilities in 2018 and now regard the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as a mutual foe.</p><p><br /></p><p>The U.S. assessment creates a potential policy predicament as Washington views Ethiopia as a major ally in the volatile Horn of Africa but accuses Eritrea of severe rights abuses.</p><p><br /></p><p>Evidence of Eritrean involvement cited in the U.S. view of the month-long war includes satellite images, intercepted communications and anecdotal reports from Tigray region, five diplomats and a security source all briefed on the U.S. assessment told Reuters.</p><p><br /></p><p>A U.S. government source confirmed Washington’s growing consensus, which has not previously been reported but matches accounts by some residents, refugees and TPLF leaders.</p><p><br /></p><p>“There doesn’t appear to be a doubt anymore. It’s being discussed by U.S. officials on calls - that the Eritreans are in Tigray - but they aren’t saying it publicly,” the U.S. government source, who has been privy to the internal calls, told Reuters.</p><p><br /></p><p>A senior diplomat from another country concurred, saying “thousands” of Eritrean soldiers were believed to be engaged.</p><p><br /></p><p>The U.S. State Department did not confirm the U.S. conclusions, though a spokesman said it would view any proven Eritrean involvement with great concern and that its embassy in Asmara was urging restraint to officials.</p><p><br /></p><p>Contacted by Reuters on Saturday, Eritrea’s Foreign Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed said: “We are not involved. It’s propaganda.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia has denied its old foe entered the conflict, though Abiy did say last week some government troops retreated into Eritrea early in the conflict and were given assistance. His spokeswoman told Reuters queries should be directed to Eritrea.</p><p><br /></p><p>Claims by all sides are near-impossible to verify because most communications to Tigray are down, and the government tightly controls access.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy won a Nobel Peace Prize last year for making peace with Eritrea, but the presence of Eritrean troops on Ethiopian soil would alarm Western allies. Ethiopia hosts the African Union, its security services work with Western allies, and its troops serve in peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and Somalia.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eritrea has for years faced accusations of large scale rights abuses, including jailing opponents and forcing citizens into lengthy military or government service. It accuses Western powers of smear campaigns and luring Eritreans abroad, which they deny. [L8N2ID2YQ]</p><p><br /></p><p>POLICY CONUNDRUM</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia-Eritrea ties were mostly icy under the TPLF-dominated government that ruled Ethiopia for nearly three decades in increasingly autocratic fashion before Abiy took office in 2018.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cameron Hudson, a former CIA officer and director for African affairs at the National Security Council, said the U.S. government was divided about speaking publicly over Eritrea.</p><p><br /></p><p>“That is, I think, due to a divide within the State Department between those seeking to maintain access to Abiy and those willing to call his own abuses,” said Hudson, now senior fellow at the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council think tank.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF claims to have killed and captured large numbers of Eritrean troops in the last month, but has provided no evidence. It has fired rockets into Eritrea at least four times, the U.S. State Department says.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eritrean troops are believed to have entered Ethiopia in mid-November through three northern border towns: Zalambessa, Rama and Badme, two of the diplomats told Reuters.</p><p><br /></p><p>The diplomatic sources and the U.S. government source did not have information on the numbers Washington believes have crossed, nor their weapons or role in the war.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mesfin Hagos, a former Eritrean defence minister who broke with Isaias, said in an article for online publication African Arguments that the Eritreans sent in four mechanised divisions, seven infantry divisions and a commando brigade, citing sources in the defence ministry, opposition and personal contacts.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some Ethiopian refugees in Sudan told Reuters they saw Eritrean soldiers in the north of Tigray, and that the border town of Humera had been hit last month by rocket or artillery fire from the Eritrean side of the border.</p><p><br /></p><p>“People died, and they were scattered,” said a barber from Humera, adding that he saw about 40 bodies after one barrage and helped bury some of them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Soldiers suspected to be Eritreans were also spotted in the regional capital Mekelle, said a resident and two diplomats in touch with inhabitants. Some were reported to be in Eritrean uniforms, one of the diplomats said. Others wore Ethiopian uniforms, but spoke Tigrinya with an Eritrean accent and drove trucks without license plates, the resident said.</p><p><br /></p><p>The United Nations has expressed concern about reported violence against 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Tigray.</p><p><br /></p><p>TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters that Eritrean soldiers had raided two camps and abducted some residents but provided no evidence.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eritrea’s Osman denied that, saying: “We are not repatriating Eritrean refugees. If Eritreans want to come back, they can.”</p><p><br /></p><p>A U.N. security team trying to visit one of the camps on Sunday encountered uniformed Eritrean troops, two diplomatic sources told Reuters. The team - including two international staff - was denied access, shot at and detained, they said.</p><p><br /></p><p>U.N. officials declined to comment. Eritrea did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p><p><br /></p><p>But Redwan Hussein, a spokesman for the Ethiopian government’s task force for the Tigray crisis, told reporters the U.N. team had broken through two checkpoints. “When they were about to break the third one they were shot at and detained,” he said.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopian officials have accused the TPLF of manufacturing fake Eritrean uniforms to bolster their claims and increase pressure on the government to accept international mediation.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF denies this.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-86795842848246644612020-12-08T08:21:00.005-08:002020-12-08T08:21:55.977-08:00Why Ethiopia's Tigray conflict won't turn into a protracted insurgency<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nu6MDfFTTJo/X8-nzY3ZwnI/AAAAAAAAfXE/6v_0JZ3U_5sgLq5YmThpWKpit01FxAIFgCLcBGAsYHQ/TPLF%2Bsoldier.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nu6MDfFTTJo/X8-nzY3ZwnI/AAAAAAAAfXE/6v_0JZ3U_5sgLq5YmThpWKpit01FxAIFgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/TPLF%2Bsoldier.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;"> TPLF soldier</span></i> </div><br /><p></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Why Ethiopia's Tigray conflict won't turn into a protracted insurgency</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/why-ethiopia-s-tigray-conflict-won-t-turn-into-a-protracted-insurgency-41995" target="_blank">Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Shire</a> | TRTWorld</p><p><br /></p><p>The Tigray People’s Liberation Front has executed a series of coercive steps to provoke a conflict at the local, national and regional level to force international powers to intervene.</p><p><br /></p><p>On November 4, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) launched coordinated attacks on the federal military's powerful Northern Command headquarters in Mekelle, prompting the Ethiopian government to launch a counter-offensive in TPLF-led Tigray.</p><p><br /></p><p>Four weeks in, federal troops have “captured” TPLF’s last stronghold, the capital city, Mekelle and the TPLF vowed to fight on, leading many to paint a dire prognosis: that the conflict is transforming into a bloody and protracted war that could spiral into a regional conflagration.</p><p><br /></p><p>A more in-depth look, however, paints an entirely different picture: that the TPLF is doing everything it can to avoid a long-drawn-out guerrilla insurgency, and instead, is actively lobbying for quick international intervention.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Provocation</b></p><p><br /></p><p>A month before the November attack, the TPLF sent a flurry of letters to different foreign heads of state asserting that any dialogue with the federal government needs to be mediated by the international community or witness widespread insecurity.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since then, the TPLF executed a series of coercive steps to provoke a conflict at the local, national and regional level with the aim to force international powers to intervene. The majority of these steps were rooted in the provocation strategy – an effective ploy often employed by insurgent groups to elicit a repressive overreaction.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, it successfully provoked the federal government with a surprise attack against its largest military base, which forced the federal government to mount a military offensive against the TPLF. Two days into the conflict, the TPLF leadership sent a letter to the African Union (AU) chair highlighting that “political problems can’t be solved through military means” while imploring urgent international intervention. The AU decided not to intervene, and instead echoed a boilerplate line of “immediate ceasefire” to end the bloodshed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Second, dismayed by the AU’s inaction and the seeming avoidance of any widespread attacks against Tigrayan civilians by federal forces, the TPLF decided to elicit an overreaction from the Amharas.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nine days into the conflict, 600 unarmed Amharas were murdered in Mai-Kadra, allegedly by retreating TPLF forces. Violence against civilians is often portrayed as an antecedent of civil war, a cause or both, and eliciting a violent response from Amharas makes strategic sense since Amhara federal troops formed the backbone of the initial military operations. However, in the aftermath of the Mai-Kadra’s massacre, the town’s mayor assured the broader community that “Amhara[s] are not seeking revenge on the Tigrayans”.</p><p><br /></p><p>More broadly, if this potential scenario played out the way the TPLF planned it, it could have forced an international intervention. Indeed, recognising that ethnic civil wars are usually centred on access to state power and resources, the international community usually prefers to intervene or mediate such conflicts with a preference for autonomy, power-sharing, or some combination of the two as evidenced, for instance, in Angola, Bosnia, and Sierra Leone.</p><p><br /></p><p>Third, internationalised ethnic conflicts to a large extent, often require an internationalised solution as they tend to be characterised by a high level of violence. Indeed, some scholars find that international mediation tends to be accepted only in the most severe cases of civil wars. In internationalising the brewing conflict and subsequently heightening the conflict, the TPLF tried to draw in neighbouring Eritrea by firing multiple rockets that struck Eritrea’s capital Asmara. Eritrea, however, refused to get dragged in or even signal retaliatory attacks.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>TPLF’s plea falls on deaf ears</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The beleaguered TPLF has unsuccessfully garnered any support from the international community. Unsurprisingly, this can be attributed to several internal and external factors.</p><p><br /></p><p>First, since the conflict started in November, the group pushed a near-mythical narrative of “battle-hardened” soldiers that have mastered the art of waging a guerrilla war. Drawing historical references to their successful rebellion against the Derg regime, the TPLF leadership boasted that Tigray is the “graveyard of dictators and aggressors”.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, whilst the TPLF are battle-hardened and possess a wealth of experience in waging a successful guerrilla insurgency, the factors that made their rebellion against the Derg regime successful no longer exist. Federal forces have already secured the border with Sudan, cutting off the “TPLF from setting up bases there” whilst Eritrea mans any potential outlet to the Red Sea.</p><p><br /></p><p>Second, the TPLF lacks international sympathy. The United States, UAE, China and other European countries have more or less sided with Ethiopia by only giving out standard diplomatic statements. Sudan was arguably the TPLF’s closest ally but the overthrow of Omar Bashir and the TPLF’s meteoric fall from grace within Ethiopia’s power structures has greatly limited the group’s influence in Khartoum.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, most ethnic civil wars are decided by a military victory rather than negotiated agreements. As a result, attrition is important because the side’s mobilisation pools are separate and can be depleted. More significantly, since each side’s mobilisation base is inherently limited to members of its community, capturing enemy population centres effectively diminishes its mobilisation base. The capture of TPLF’s last stronghold in Mekelle has essentially sapped them from significant popular support – for the time being.</p><p><br /></p><p>Whilst the TPLF has “vowed” to fight on after being ejected from their most important base in Mekelle, it is unlikely that the group’s rhetoric of a “long conflict” will match their current operational strategy. However, events can go the other way, giving TPLF the necessary impetus to change the tide against them and still precipitate an international intervention.</p><p><br /></p><p>The group has made repeated claims that innocent Tigrayans are being systematically profiled and marginalised by the Ethiopian state. Already, there have been reports of non-aligned Tigrayans being fired, demoted or suspended for fear of switching loyalty to the TPLF. One pertinent example is the disarmament of 200 Tigrayans from the Ethiopian contingent of the African Union Mission to Somalia.</p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, over 40,000 Tigrayan civilians have fled the region since the crisis started. Expectedly, many fear that they will be unfairly targeted on account of their ethnic identity and if these worries are realised with government-tolerated ‘reprisal’ attacks against innocent Tigrayans, it can potentially incentivise resentful and fearful Tigrayans to accept the TPLF’s appeal for broader mobilisation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Indeed, this level of repressive overreaction is what the TPLF was initially banking on in attracting international intervention and might prove equally useful as a recruitment strategy if it ever decides to switch to full-fledged guerrilla warfare.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-61152909666508105742020-12-05T12:30:00.002-08:002020-12-05T12:34:04.037-08:00Eritrea hopes TPLF surrenders to the Ethiopian Federal Government <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zr4jZYzKyFE/X8vtCUQoqbI/AAAAAAAAfW0/diUMiwaL4yECDthU-O0wzxD5gZjLsVf9QCLcBGAsYHQ/Russia%252C%2BEritrea.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="710" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zr4jZYzKyFE/X8vtCUQoqbI/AAAAAAAAfW0/diUMiwaL4yECDthU-O0wzxD5gZjLsVf9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Russia%252C%2BEritrea.jpg" /></a><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666;">Russian Ambassador to Eritrea Azim Yarakhmedov with Eritrean FM Osman Saleh</span></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><i><span style="color: #666666;">The following was translated from Russian using online software </span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></i></p><p><b>On the meeting of Russian Ambassador A. Yarakhmedova with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Eritrea O. Saleh</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>By <a href="https://www.facebook.com/russemberitrea/posts/1155997244803096" target="_blank">Russian Embassy in Eritrea</a> | December 3, 2020</p><p><br /></p><p>Russian Ambassador held a meeting with Eritrea Foreign Minister Osman Saleh. The focus was on further strengthening of Russian-Eritrean cooperation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Separately A. Yarakhmedov and O. Saleh discussed the situation in neighboring Ethiopia in connection with the ongoing operation in the Tigray area by Ethiopian government forces to strengthen the country's territorial integrity. <b>According to the Minister, the Eritrean side is not involved in this conflict</b>, while they had to strengthen the security of the state border in the region so that the retreating forces of TPLF would not cross it. With the capture of Mekele, it is possible that the Ethiopian government has reached its objective, and the remaining two centers in Hager Selam and Abiy Addi are only a matter of time. <b>The Eritrean also expressed his hope that Tigray authorities will make the right decision and surrender to government troops to prevent further causalities</b>.</p><p><br /></p><p>As part of the discussion on the topic of cooperation between the African horn countries, the Minister allowed the possibility, after the end of the conflict in Ethiopia, to intensify contacts and to develop closer cooperation between the countries of the region.</p><p><br /></p><p>A. Yarakhmedov, for his part, thanked the Eritrean Minister for supporting various international initiatives of the Russian Federation.</p><p><br /></p><p>In general, the meeting between A. Yarakhmedov and O. Saleh took place in a friendly atmosphere, which has recently been inherent in relations between the two countries.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-37630473352612221412020-12-04T16:39:00.006-08:002020-12-04T16:41:11.790-08:00Ethiopia says most TPLF commanders are put out of action, sees war ending <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XsOyxnkEEqk/X8rWj2_94zI/AAAAAAAAfWo/ILHkRfylV0AZ2Ga_tKGmmiE0VdKf10MVwCLcBGAsYHQ/Wanted%2BTPLF%2Bcommanders.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="770" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-XsOyxnkEEqk/X8rWj2_94zI/AAAAAAAAfWo/ILHkRfylV0AZ2Ga_tKGmmiE0VdKf10MVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Wanted%2BTPLF%2Bcommanders.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="color: #999999;">A youngster stands in front of a sign that depicts TPLF members as wanted by the Ethiopian federal police in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, on November 26, 2020 [File: Eduardo Soteras/AFP]</span></i><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Ethiopia sees war ending, EU complains of partisan aid access</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>By <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict-idUSKBN28E13V" target="_blank">Reuters</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopia said it had captured or killed most commanders of a rebellious northern force, while Tigray’s fugitive local leader countered on Friday that civilians were protesting against looting by occupying soldiers.</p><div><div>Neither side gave proof for their assertions about the month-long war in the mountainous region bordering Eritrea, where phone communications have been down and access severely restricted both for media and aid workers.</div><div><br /></div><div>A senior European official chided the Ethiopian government over an agreement to allow access for humanitarian aid to Tigray, saying it only covered federal-controlled areas and had onerous bureaucratic requirements.</div><div><br /></div><div>“There may be malnourished children on the other side also,” EU crisis commissioner Janez Lenarcic told reporters in Ethiopia. The government did not immediately respond to his comments.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fighting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal army and forces loyal to the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), erupted on Nov. 4.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thousands of people are believed to have died while more than 46,000 refugees have crossed to neighbouring Sudan.</div><div><br /></div><div>TPLF leaders, who enjoy strong popular support in Tigray, appear to have fled to surrounding mountains and say they have begun a guerrilla-style resistance.</div><div><br /></div><div>TPLF No. 1 Debretsion Gebremichael, one of the most wanted men in Ethiopia, told Reuters in a text message that there were protests in the regional capital Mekelle, which is home to 500,000 people, due to looting by Eritrean soldiers.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Eritrean soldiers are everywhere,” he said, repeating an accusation that President Isaias Afwerki has sent soldiers over the border to back Abiy against their mutual foe.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have denied that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ethiopia says the TPLF wants to internationalize the conflict as a way to force the government, which appears to hold all the major towns, into international mediation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Debretsion, a 57-year-old former guerrilla radio operator, gave no evidence of looting or the presence of Eritreans. A diplomatic source shared a picture of a road covered in stones, which he said was sent from a resident of Mekelle, but it was unclear where or when the picture was shot.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Wednesday, state TV showed images of people shopping and sitting on stools in Mekelle. But there have been no images of security forces interacting with residents.</div><div><br /></div><div>Abiy’s spokeswoman Billene Seyoum said she would not comment on unverifiable text messages from the TPLF.</div><div><br /></div><div>A senior military commander, General Tesfaye Ayalew, said “almost all of the enemy”, including former federal colonels and generals who fought on the Tigrayan side, were defeated or dead. “But the ones who made the plans and the criminals are still on the run and hiding,” he told state-affiliated Fana TV.</div><div><br /></div><div>Debretsion called those comments a “dream”.</div><div><br /></div><div>‘WE HEARD BOOM’</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>Relief agencies are extremely worried about lack of food, fuel, medicines and even bodybags in Tigray.</div><div><br /></div><div>Convoys are on standby to take aid in.</div><div><br /></div><div>The United Arab Emirates flew a cargo of supplies including medicines into the capital Addis Ababa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.</div><div><br /></div><div>The United Nations sounded the alarm about fighting and deaths - including of aid workers, sources told Reuters - around camps for Eritrean refugees.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Ethiopia’s government has said it will protect civilians and ensure their needs are met. Mulu Nega, appointed by Abiy as chief executive of a new Provisional Administration of Tigray, said supplies were reaching parts of west Tigray under its control.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Our priority in the region now is to restore peace,” the 52-year-old former academic told state-run EBC.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Sudan, refugees recounted horror stories of fleeing from Tigray along roads strewn with bodies and also spoke of Eritrean involvement. Tewodros Tesera, a surgeon from the border town of Humera, said shells had come from the Eritrean side over the Tekeze River in the early days of battles.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The shells were falling in front of the hospital where I work,” he recalled by phone from the Hamdayet refugee camp.</div><div><br /></div><div>“We heard ‘boom’, then 20 seconds, then whistle, then a second heavy bombing, which struck the ground and buildings. Houses, a mosque and a church were damaged.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Abiy took office in 2018 after nearly three decades of TPLF-led government.</div><div><br /></div><div>He began opening up a closed economy and repressive political system, won a Nobel Peace Prize for a pact with Eritrea, and took action over corruption and rights abuses.</div><div><br /></div><div>But the trials of senior Tigrayan officials for torture, murder and corruption irked the TPLF, who said the arrests were politically motivated. Abiy’s government has also jailed thousands of citizens following bouts of violent unrest.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least six journalists have been arrested since the Tigray conflict begun.</div><div><br /></div><div>The TPLF accuses Abiy, their former political partner, of trying to increase personal power over Ethiopia’s 10 regions. Abiy denies that, calling them criminals who mutinied against federal authority, attacked a military base, and were wildly over-represented in government for a group that only accounts for 6% of the population.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-38982647556284951042020-12-03T13:32:00.001-08:002020-12-03T13:32:09.695-08:00France 24: TPLF's claim of 14 Eritrean divisions fighting in Tigray is "completely untrue" [Video]<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RlCTFFK344s" width="100%"></iframe>
</p><p>By France 24 </p><p> Forces in Tigray say they have shot down an Ethiopian government plane and regained control of some towns. However, as FRANCE 24’s chief foreign editor Robert Parsons explains, the Tigray People's Liberation Front’s claims should be treated with a degree of caution.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-22470625619204042092020-12-01T16:37:00.003-08:002020-12-01T16:37:29.336-08:00Ethiopia's TPLF forces 'regrouping outside Tigray capital'<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PMZ4RANmX3M/X8bgu-YOZhI/AAAAAAAAfWc/DdcxoOd-iYs1L1d3I-YPBlDfyh4P5KWcACLcBGAsYHQ/TPLF_parade.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="840" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-PMZ4RANmX3M/X8bgu-YOZhI/AAAAAAAAfWc/DdcxoOd-iYs1L1d3I-YPBlDfyh4P5KWcACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/TPLF_parade.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="color: #666666;">After suffering a stunning defeat in 25 days of combat, TPLF forces are now attempting to regroup 50km outside of Mekelle </span></i><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopia's TPLF forces 'regrouping outside Tigray capital' </b></p><p><br /></p><p>By Kalkidan Yibeltal | BBC Africa</p><p><br /></p><p>Fighters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have been seen trying to re-group outside the city of Mekelle – just days after losing the state capital.</p><p><br /></p><p>That’s according to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed – who just days earlier had declared the conflict over.</p><p><br /></p><p>The head of the TPLF said his forces would fight on, indicating the conflict might not be completely over.</p><p><br /></p><p>Prime Minister Abiy claims that the TPLF fighters who fled Mekelle are in his sight.</p><p><br /></p><p>“We saw them from the situation room around Hagere Selam, a town 50 km [31 miles] away from the state capital," he told lawmakers.</p><p><br /></p><p>He said the federal army didn’t attack because the retreating TPLF fighters had their families and "abducted soldiers" with them.</p><p><br /></p><p>The head of the TPLF, Debretsion Gebremichael, denied he was in the area, but admitted that his troops were close by.</p><p><br /></p><p>Earlier, he said the TPLF would fight on as long as the federal troops – which he called "invaders" – were in their land.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hundreds are believed to have been killed from both sides since fighting began four weeks ago.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mr Abiy said no civilians have been killed by his troops, but since the federal government has imposed a widespread communications shutdown, that claim is impossible to independently verify.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-19215046579808353922020-11-29T18:35:00.000-08:002020-11-29T18:35:12.717-08:00Farah Maalim: TPLF has held Ethiopia hostage for three decades [Video]<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EYOKC9CPKgA" width="100%"></iframe></p><p><br /></p><p>By Prime Media</p><p><br /></p><p>Farah Maalim is a Kenyan politician and former deputy speaker Kenyan National Assembly 2008 - 2013. </p><p><br /></p><p>Mengistu Assefa talked to Mr. Maalim on the armed conflict in northern Ethiopia.</p><p><br /></p><br /><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">TPLF bragged earlier on that fighting is a way of life for them. What a joke!!!. They capitulated in a manner that will go down in military history as the mother of all defeats. They rode on the backs Eritrean fighters to defeat the DERG three decades ago. Now they can only run!!</p>— Farah Maalim EGH (@FarahMaalimM) <a href="https://twitter.com/FarahMaalimM/status/1332748092542758912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-81907303048004655332020-11-29T03:28:00.003-08:002020-11-29T03:28:30.073-08:00Ethiopia PM says Tigray operation over after army seizes Mekelle [Video]<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u6uhtBpx_CU" width="100%"></iframe></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopian military operation in Tigray is complete, prime minister says</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict/ethiopian-military-operation-in-tigray-is-complete-prime-minister-says-idUSKBN28809E" target="_blank">Reuters</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Saturday that military operations in the restive region of Tigray are complete and federal troops control the regional capital, a major development in a three-week-old war that has shaken the Horn of Africa.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy’s government has been trying to quell a rebellion by a powerful ethnic faction that dominated the central government for decades before he came to power in 2018. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed, and nearly 44,000 have fled to Sudan, in a conflict that has called into question whether Abiy can hold together fractious ethnic groups in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country.</p><p><br /></p><p>“I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the Tigray region,” the prime minister said in a tweet. Less than an hour earlier, he said in a statement, “The federal government is now fully in control of the city of Mekelle”.</p><p><br /></p><p>However the leader of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), whose forces have been fighting Ethiopian troops, said the group was not giving up.</p><p><br /></p><p>“Their brutality can only add (to) our resolve to fight these invaders to the last,” TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael told Reuters in a text message. Asked by Reuters if that meant his forces would continue fighting, he replied: “Certainly. This is about defending our right to self determination.”</p><p><br /></p><p>There was no immediate response from the government.</p><p><br /></p><p>In his statement, Abiy said federal police would continue searching for and detaining TPLF “criminals” and would bring them to court. The prime minister has called the offensive a law and order operation.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was not clear if any TPLF leaders had surrendered. Debretsion said in another text message that their forces were withdrawing from around Mekelle.</p><p><br /></p><p>Claims from all sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to Tigray have been down and access tightly controlled since the fighting began on Nov. 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>Authorities had said earlier on Saturday that government forces were in the final stages of an offensive in the region and would take care to protect civilians in Mekelle, a city of 500,000 people.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy said the army had secured the release of thousands of troops from the army’s Northern Command, which is based in Tigray, who he said had been held hostage by the TPLF.</p><p><br /></p><p>Federal troops had also taken control of the airport, the regional administration office and other key facilities, Abiy said.</p><p><br /></p><p>The government had given the TPLF an ultimatum that expired on Wednesday to lay down arms or face an assault on the city.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was not clear if federal forces had seized weapons stocks on Saturday. The government said in the first week of the conflict that a target of its airstrikes was military hardware seized by Tigrayan forces.</p><p><br /></p><p>Regional diplomats and experts have said that a rapid military victory might not signal the end of the conflict.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two diplomats told Reuters it was likely that Tigrayan forces had withdrawn from Mekelle before the government’s push into the city, raising the prospect of a protracted guerrilla war.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF has a history of guerrilla resistance and used Tigray’s highland terrain and foreign borders to its advantage through years of armed struggle in the 1980s against a Marxist government.</p><p><br /></p><p>The prime minister has so far rebuffed attempts at mediation. Abiy accuses Tigrayan leaders of starting the war by attacking federal troops at a base in Tigray. The TPLF says the attack was a pre-emptive strike.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-22677190918055881342020-11-28T09:52:00.002-08:002020-11-28T09:58:37.429-08:00Ethiopian military has taken 'full control' of Tigray capital, government says<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ZrjVIGrvOw/X8KNdW5iFkI/AAAAAAAAfWQ/wf_chgv5Gxg8_Xsq_AN0jd8OmolSavMAgCLcBGAsYHQ/PM-Abiy-Ahmed-Isaias-Afwerki-Drink-in-Asmara-Eritrea%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ZrjVIGrvOw/X8KNdW5iFkI/AAAAAAAAfWQ/wf_chgv5Gxg8_Xsq_AN0jd8OmolSavMAgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/PM-Abiy-Ahmed-Isaias-Afwerki-Drink-in-Asmara-Eritrea%2B%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">With TPLF out of the way, the Horn of Africa can finally have peace</span></i></div> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopian military has taken 'full control' of Tigray capital, government says</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-conflict/ethiopian-military-has-taken-full-control-of-tigray-capital-government-says-idUSKBN28809E" target="_blank">Reuters</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopian troops have taken “full control” of the Tigray region’s capital Mekelle, the government said on Saturday evening, a major development in a three-week-old war that is sending shockwaves through the Horn of Africa.</p><p><br /></p><p>“The federal government is now fully in control of the city of Mekelle,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement posted on his Twitter page.</p><p><br /></p><p>He said police were searching for the leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), who have been fighting federal forces in the northern region since Nov. 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>“Federal police will now continue their task of apprehending TPLF criminals and bring them to the court of law,” said Abiy, who has called the government offensive a law and order operation.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was no immediate comment from the TPLF.</p><p><br /></p><p>Claims from all sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to the region have been down and access has been tightly controlled since fighting began on Nov. 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>Authorities had said earlier that government forces were in the final stages of an offensive in the region and would take care to protect civilians in Mekelle, a city of 500,000 people.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy said the army had secured the release of thousands of troops in the Northern Command, a military unit based in Tigray that was being held hostage by the TPLF.</p><p><br /></p><p>The army chief of staff, Birhanu Jula, also announced that government forces had taken control of Mekelle, in a statement on the military’s official Facebook page.</p><p><br /></p><p>State television said that federal forces were in full control of the city by 7 p.m.</p><p><br /></p><p>Earlier on Saturday, a diplomat in direct contact with residents, and the leader of Tigrayan forces said federal forces had begun an offensive to capture Mekelle.</p><p><br /></p><p>The government had given the TPLF an ultimatum that expired on Wednesday to lay down arms or face an assault on the city.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thousands of people are believed to have died during the fighting this month and around 43,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring Sudan during the conflict.</p><br /><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Mekelle under command of the National Defense Forces <a href="https://t.co/rj8GbK3ii8">pic.twitter.com/rj8GbK3ii8</a></p>— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) <a href="https://twitter.com/AbiyAhmedAli/status/1332730958999588864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br /><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am pleased to share that we have completed and ceased the military operations in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tigray?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Tigray</a> region. <br><br>Our focus now will be on rebuilding the region and providing humanitarian assistance while Federal Police apprehend the TPLF clique. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/EthiopiaPrevails?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#EthiopiaPrevails</a> <a href="https://t.co/WrM2BAPCD6">https://t.co/WrM2BAPCD6</a></p>— Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) <a href="https://twitter.com/AbiyAhmedAli/status/1332740110039846914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br /><br /
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-33676882516968464352020-11-27T14:20:00.001-08:002020-11-27T14:20:28.228-08:00Fresh rocket attack from Ethiopia’s Tigray region targets Eritrea, say diplomats<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qXnzNNXky3k/X8F6bA8HcPI/AAAAAAAAfWE/8j0bxSVkHJgRB1PUw9GI-o04kqUm4pPeACLcBGAsYHQ/Asmara%252C%2BEritrea.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qXnzNNXky3k/X8F6bA8HcPI/AAAAAAAAfWE/8j0bxSVkHJgRB1PUw9GI-o04kqUm4pPeACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Asmara%252C%2BEritrea.jpg" /></a><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #999999;">Asmara, Eritrea </span></i></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Fresh rocket attack from Ethiopia’s Tigray region targets Eritrea, say diplomats</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By AFP</p><p><br /></p><p>At least one rocket fired from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region targeted neighbouring Eritrea Friday night, four regional diplomats told AFP, the second such attack since Ethiopia’s internal conflict broke out earlier this month.</p><p><br /></p><p>“There was one rocket coming from Tigray that seems to have landed south of Asmara” (the Eritrean capital), one diplomat said, noting there was no immediate information available on casualties or damages.</p><p><br /></p><p>A second diplomat said there were reports of another rocket striking a neighbourhood in Asmara, but this remained unconfirmed.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has for more than three weeks been waging a military campaign against the leadership of Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).</p><p><br /></p><p>He announced the operations November 4, saying they came in response to attacks orchestrated by the TPLF on federal military camps.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF has accused Ethiopia of enlisting Eritrean military support, a charge Ethiopia denies.</p><p><br /></p><p>Two weeks ago Debretsion Gebremichael, the president of Tigray, claimed responsibility for rocket strikes targeting the airport in Asmara.</p><p><br /></p><p>Those strikes exacerbated fears Ethiopia’s conflict could draw in the wider Horn of Africa region.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the TPLF for Friday’s strike, nor was there comment from Ethiopia or Eritrea.</p><p><br /></p><p>After more than three weeks of fighting that has killed hundreds and sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into neighbouring Sudan, Abiy said this week the army was poised for a final offensive in the Tigrayan capital, Mekele, in the coming days.</p><p><br /></p><p>Tigray has been under a communications blackout since military operations began, making claims of advances difficult to verify.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was not immediately clear Friday night how close Ethiopian federal forces were to entering Mekele.</p><p><br /></p><p>The international community has warned that an assault on Mekele, a city of half a million, could violate rules of war.</p><p><br /></p><p>Earlier Friday Abiy, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, met with envoys from the African Union to discuss the conflict.</p><p><br /></p><p>But he has so far resisted calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and talks with TPLF leaders.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-47666070856904773712020-11-26T12:37:00.004-08:002020-11-26T12:37:49.503-08:00Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: 'Major military operations will be completed soon' [Video[<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/werGvin1IL0" width="100%"></iframe></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: 'Major military operations will be completed soon' </b></p><p><br /></p><p>By France 24 </p><p><br /></p><p>In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Ethiopian Finance Minister Ahmed Shide discussed the government's ongoing military offensive against the northern Tigray region and its capital Mekele. Shide said government forces had "liberated" significant areas of the region and that military operations "will be completed soon". He called the conflict a "law and order operation" and claimed that the aim was to "protect the Tigrayan people from the TPLF (Tigray People's Liberation Front) junta", which he accused of "committing different atrocities". </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-68384251888566844492020-11-26T11:56:00.003-08:002020-11-26T11:56:12.733-08:00Ethiopia says TPLF is preparing to commit atrocities in Mekelle posing as Ethiopian and Eritrean Defense forces<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f1F4XNg2HeI/X8AH1gLt3fI/AAAAAAAAfV4/_ASXzS0kQVYFUEFZxELmH4ov_VbvHA-kQCLcBGAsYHQ/ENDF%2BGeneral.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="799" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f1F4XNg2HeI/X8AH1gLt3fI/AAAAAAAAfV4/_ASXzS0kQVYFUEFZxELmH4ov_VbvHA-kQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/ENDF%2BGeneral.jpg" /></a><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #666666;">Major General Mohammed Tessema of ENDF</span></i></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Ethiopia: Federal Police, ENDF accuse TPLF of “preparing to commit atrocities in Mekelle similar to that in Maikadra"</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>By <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3503865156328121&id=177352718979398" target="_blank">Addis Standard</a> </p><p><br /></p><p>The Federal Police Commission said today that it has received “information from the public” that the TPLF was preparing to "commit atrocities in Mekelle city" similar to that in Maikadra town. The Commission also accused TPLF of “wearing the federal army uniform” to commit the crimes on residents of Mekelle who are “not Tigrayans”. It also says it has received information that the TPLF was preparing to disseminate information blaming its planned crimes on government forces and called for the public to not fall for TPLF’s “false propaganda.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Similarly, the first statement with the same accusation was issued on November 24 by Major General Mohammed Tessema, Director General of Indoctrination bureau of the Ethiopian Federal Defense Forces (ENDF).</p><p><br /></p><p>Briefing state media on current affairs, Maj. Gen. Mohammed said that the TPLF was planning to commit the crime by using the ENDF and the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) uniforms “it has manufactured in Almeda Textile Factory.”</p><p><br /></p><p>Today’s statement by the Federal Police Commission was issued as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the start of final phase of law enforcement operation and called on "the people of Mekelle and its environs to disarm, stay at home and stay away from military targets and take all necessary precautions."</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-774364245587719244.post-78874048244218743802020-11-26T11:09:00.001-08:002020-11-26T11:09:18.023-08:00Rise and fall of Ethiopia’s TPLF – from rebels to rulers and back<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kMxWqF6bDoE/X7_7rLy8SMI/AAAAAAAAfVs/rBO9LAJ_auIyty_E1NIQsQA7RJRTEnpvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/EPLF%2Bin%2Baddis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kMxWqF6bDoE/X7_7rLy8SMI/AAAAAAAAfVs/rBO9LAJ_auIyty_E1NIQsQA7RJRTEnpvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/EPLF%2Bin%2Baddis.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="color: #666666;">Photo: I am guessing here, but this looks like EPLF fighters escorting TPLF to the presidential palace in Addis Ababa in 1991. </span></i><i><span style="color: #666666;">TPLF was piggybacked to power by the EPLF.</span></i><i><span style="color: #666666;"> Photograph: Jérôme Delay/AFP/Getty Images. </span></i><p></p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Rise and fall of Ethiopia’s TPLF – from rebels to rulers and back</b></p><p><br /></p><p>By <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/25/rise-and-fall-of-ethiopias-tplf-tigray-peoples-liberation-front?CMP=share_btn_fb" target="_blank">Jason Burke</a> | TheGuardian </p><p><br /></p><p>In the centre of Mekelle, the highland capital of Tigray, is a complex of memorials and museums. Under the hot sun, old armoured vehicles, jets and helicopters rust quietly. On the city’s wide avenues, statues commemorate the “martyrs” and the victories of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a small band of insurgents who became a guerrilla army, launched a successful rebellion and eventually ruled Africa’s second most populous country for almost 30 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>This week federal Ethiopian forces have closed in on Mekelle in the final stages of a bloody offensive launched earlier this month by Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, with the aim of eliminating the TPLF as a political force.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF’s rise took 16 years, and its dominance of Ethiopian politics lasted nearly twice as long, but if Abiy’s “law enforcement operation” is successful, its fall will have taken less than 30 months. “It is really shocking. The decline is very dramatic,” said Yohannes Woldemariam, a US-based academic specialising in the Horn of Africa.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF was formed in 1975 at a time when hundreds of millions of people across Africa and the Middle East were demanding revolutions and liberation. Among those in Ethiopia calling for both were a dozen young men from the mountainous northern region of Tigray. Inspired by Marxist-Leninism, a profound sense of national identity, and the utopian slogans of the time, they imagined a brave new world for their country.</p><p><br /></p><p>Only a year earlier, Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia, had been deposed and murdered by hardline Marxist army officers, who immediately set about imposing a harsh authoritarian rule. In Tigray, there had long been resentment at the power of the centralised Ethiopian state. Many remembered the Tigrayan armed revolt of 1943, which had been brutally put down. This time, the TPLF leaders vowed, they would triumph.</p><p><br /></p><p>Through the late 1970s the TPLF grew steadily. By 1978 the party had around 2,000 fighters, according to CIA estimates at the time. Two years later it could mobilise twice as many, the agency said.</p><p><br /></p><p>Among them was Debretsion Gebremichael, who was then a wireless operator and propagandist for the insurgents and is now the group’s leader.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPLF’s success owed nothing to chance. Its leaders were ruthless and canny. They fought and destroyed rival rebel groups in Tigray and were careful to downplay their own Marxist views, which would be unpopular with the conservative, devoutly Christian rural populations that made up the TPLF’s initial support base. Instead, they emphasised the threat posed to local traditions and regional autonomy by the socialist policies of the regime in Addis Ababa.</p><p><br /></p><p>An alliance with like-minded leftist nationalist rebels from the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) in the neighbouring province brought the organisation critical training and experience, which allowed it to resist the massive firepower of the Soviet-backed government regime.</p><p><br /></p><p>“Ethiopian large-scale military operations to crush [the insurgency] have failed, with heavy losses of men and equipment,” noted the CIA in a 1983 assessment. “The government has paid a high political and economic price.”</p><p><br /></p><p>But the suffering in Tigray was immense, with blunt and brutal counter-insurgency campaigns playing a significant role in the appalling famine of 1984. The TV reports that prompted global concern and the Live Aid concerts were filmed in Mekelle.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the end of the 1980s, the TPLF was by far the biggest and most effective among the coalition of Ethiopian armed rebel groups that had united under the banner of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) to fight the ailing Ethiopian regime. On 28 May 1991, TPLF troops backed by Eritrean forces seized control of Addis Ababa, the capital.</p><p><br /></p><p>The fall of the regime left the TPLF’s leader, 36-year-old Meles Zenawi, in power and the army and intelligence services dominated by Tigrayans, who moved swiftly to consolidate their control in other sectors. Jobs were found for former comrades. Debretsion, the one-time wireless operator and by now a veteran close to Zenawi, was made the deputy head of the national intelligence agency, and later the minister of communications and information technology.</p><p><br /></p><p>Debretsion’s career spans the two sides of Ethiopia under the TPLF-dominated coalition government from 1991. There was the construction of a carefully balanced ethnicity-based federal state, rapid development progress, massive infrastructure investment and stunning economic success, which has come close to banishing the hunger that once made the country infamous.</p><p><br /></p><p>Mekelle thrived, its neat streets and electricity lines testament to the resources channelled to the TPLF’s stronghold.</p><p><br /></p><p>But there was also repression so remorseless that it worried even the US, which saw Ethiopia as the cornerstone of its security strategy in the region and was prepared to tolerate most of the excesses of the TPLF leadership.</p><p><br /></p><p>Meles died suddenly in 2012, and his handpicked successor, Halemariam Desalegn, proved too weak to manage growing tensions.</p><p><br /></p><p>Discontent, especially among the two largest ethnic groups – the Oromo and Amhara – threatened the delicate compromise of the 1994 constitution, and representatives of the two communities eventually joined forces to outmanoeuvre the TPLF within the ruling coalition to get Abiy, who is of mixed Oromo-Amharic parentage, appointed as prime minister in 2018.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy moved swiftly. Top TPLF officials were sacked from key security posts, generals were arrested on graft charges, and changes were introduced to counter the Tigrayan dominance of the armed forces. Political prisoners were freed from secret prisons, exiled dissidents were welcomed home, cumbersome state enterprises were privatised, and restrictions on the media were eased.</p><p><br /></p><p>Abiy’s peace deal with Eritrea, which won him the Nobel peace prize, isolated the TPLF. By this summer, simmering tensions had risen further. The TPLF refused to hand over wanted fugitives or join a new political party set up by Abiy to replace the old ruling coalition, and it went ahead with local elections in Tigray despite polls being postponed nationwide owing to the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p><br /></p><p>Observers said the decision was a “provocation”, even if supporters claimed it was a necessary defence of federal rights. Abiy’s office says the prime minister has tried to work with the TPLF but has been rebuffed.</p><p><br /></p><p>The spark that set light to the tinder came in early November with an alleged raid by TPLF units on federal military bases in Tigray, in which many national army officers were killed and substantial quantities of hardware was seized. Abiy launched his offensive immediately.</p><p><br /></p><p>It has taken federal troops three weeks to fight their way to within artillery range of Mekelle. It is unclear whether Debretsion and the TPLF’s other leaders are now in the city. Analysts think it likely they have scattered, seeking remote hideouts from which they can run a lengthy and costly insurgency.</p><p><br /></p><p>“They are looking at the long term and trying to make Tigray a burial ground for Abiy’s troops,” Woldemariam said. “It is very tragic. A lot of people will suffer.”</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0