Ethiopia’s Tigray regional government appeals for help after factional fighters seize key towns
The interim government of Ethiopia’s Tigray region appealed for the Ethiopian federal government to intervene after a faction of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front seized control of two major towns, leaving several people wounded and raising fears of a return to civil war, AP reported.
On Tuesday the TPLF faction seized Adigrat, the second-biggest town in Tigray, and appointed a new administrator, ousting the office-holder loyal to the interim government. On Wednesday night, it took control of Adi-Gudem, a town near the regional capital, Mekele. Several people in Adi-Gudem suffered gunshot wounds when armed forces attempted to occupy a government building.
The TPLF fought a brutal two-year war against federal forces which ended in November 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement and the formation of a TPLF-led interim government. Hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the fighting which began in November 2020, with millions displaced and many left near famine in Africa’s second-most populous country.
However, since the war ended, the TPLF has splintered. In October, its leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, expelled the head of the interim government, Getachew Reda, from the party along with four members of his cabinet.
In retaliation, Reda, who was the chief negotiator of the peace agreement, temporarily suspended four senior military commanders who he believed were aligned with Gebremichael’s faction.
“The region may be on the brink of another crisis,” read a statement Wednesday from the Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau, which is part of the interim government.
Reda has described the TPLF’s recent actions as a “potential coup attempt.”
In a televised interview, he emphasized the need for the international community — one of the key guarantors of the Pretoria Peace Agreement — to closely monitor the escalating situation in the war-torn region.
“The parties to the Pretoria Agreement should really take into account the deteriorating situation in Tigray and the far-reaching ramifications of the unraveling of the Pretoria agreements,” he said.
TPLF deputy chairman Amanuel Assefa told The Associated Press that the current crises have nothing to do with the Pretoria agreement but are largely related to law enforcement.
“The TPLF and the Tigray forces are the rightful owners of the Pretoria Agreement. Therefore there is no reason to engage in any actions that would violate that”, he said.
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