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Abiy Ahmed says the Tigrayans are in chaos.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the Tigrayans, whom the army has been fighting for weeks, do not have the ability to wage guerrilla warfare from the mountains of the northern region.
And Abiy Ahmed has already declared an end to the conflict, describing the Tigrayans in his latest statement as “completely defeated and in disarray.”
Federal forces captured Mekele, the provincial capital, from TPLF fighters and announced the end of their offensive.
However, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front reported a few days ago that it was fighting on different fronts, around the city of Mikkeli.
Experts fear that a protracted insurgency could have a destabilizing effect in East Africa.
Most telecommunications remain cut off and there are restrictions on the movement of humanitarian workers and the media, so it is not possible to verify contradictory reports.
What did Abi Ahmed say?
“The criminal gang published a clearly false narrative that its fighters and supporters are well armed and tough in combat, posing the risk of a long-term insurgency in the rugged mountains,” the prime minister’s statement said.
“He stated that he was able to undertake a strategic withdrawal and that all his capacities and government agencies are still intact.”
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The statement added: “The truth is that the criminal gang has been completely defeated, in a state of disorder, and has no capacity to wage a long-term insurgency.”
There was no immediate response from the TPLF.
Urgent need for help
The conflict is believed to have claimed thousands of lives. As a result, nearly 50,000 refugees fled to Sudan, and the region witnessed the firing of rockets by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in Eritrea, sparking ethnic divisions and disarming Tigray fighters participating in the forces of Ethiopian peacekeepers fighting Al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia.
The United Nations and aid agencies are pushing for their personnel to reach Tigray safely, home to more than 5 million people, 600,000 of whom depended on food aid even before the war.
The Reuters news agency quoted two senior aid officials as saying over the weekend that looting and lawlessness meant the area was still too dangerous to send aid convoys.
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With the restoration of peace, the government says its priorities are the well-being of the Tigrayans and the return of the refugees. But some residents, diplomats and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front say clashes are continuing, and there were reports of protests and looting in Mikkeli on Friday.
The TPLF had dominated the government for nearly three decades, until Abe came to power in 2018 and initiated democratic reforms.
The front accuses him of seeking to centralize power at the expense of Ethiopia’s ten regions. It says Tigrayan officials have been unfairly targeted in a crackdown on corruption and abuse of rights.
The government denies this and accuses the leaders of the MILF of “treason” by attacking federal forces in early November.
