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04:15 pm
Wednesday 04 November 2020
I wrote – Rana Osama:
In recent hours, tensions between the Addis Ababa government and the “Tigray” opposition movement escalated, following steps described as “threatening the country’s sovereignty” and leading to a civil war, prompting a federal military counter-response. , of unknown nature, and the declaration of emergency in the de facto northern Ethiopia region on the borders of Eritrea and Sudan.
This is the latest chapter in a series of conflicts between Tigray officials and the federal government in Addis Ababa, after they challenged it and proceeded to regional elections in September.
“Red line”
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of crossing what he described as a “red line”. He said that he “carried out an attack on a Federal Army camp in the opposition region around two in the morning (local time).”
“Our defense forces have been ordered (…) to fulfill their mission to save the nation, and the last stage of the red line has been crossed,” Abe added in a statement in Amharic, published this Wednesday, in their official accounts via Facebook and Twitter.
The TPLF attacked a defense camp in Tigray and also attempted to plunder the North. This is an army that has been protecting the people of Tigray for over two decades and is there to protect the people of Tigray. pic.twitter.com/UUjMlIWsjN
– Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) November 3, 2020
Abe explained that “unloyal forces” had turned against the army in Mekele, the capital of Tigray, and Dansha, a city in the west of the region.
In a separate speech broadcast on state television, he added that security forces repelled the attack on Dinsha in the Amhara region, on the border with southern Tigray, noting that the attack caused “several deaths, injuries and material damage. “, without announcing a toll or specifying the size of the damage.
Emergency disconnection and internet
Then, the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s Office declared, in an English statement on its Twitter account, a state of emergency for a period of 6 months throughout Tigray.
He attributed this to the fact that the opposition’s “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” “took measures that represent a threat to the constitution, constitutional order, security and protection of society, and especially threaten the sovereignty of the country,” according to the notice.
He claimed that the “Tigray People’s Liberation Front” dressed its members in military uniforms similar to those worn by Eritrean army soldiers, in order to “implicate the Eritrean government in false accusations of aggression against the Tigrayans” .
He warned that the situation “has reached a level that cannot be controlled, except through the regulatory mechanism for the application of the law and the maintenance of order.”
In a statement published by local media, the Tigray regional government said that Northern Command leaders and soldiers stationed in Mikkeli “decided to support the people of Tigray and the regional government.”
In parallel, the organization “Netblocks” concerned about Internet outages, reported that the service appeared to be interrupted in Tigray as of 1 after midnight on Tuesday (local time).
The Ethiopian daily Addis Standard also said that the government cut off communication and the internet in the region, asking for the same mistake it made after the murder of opposition singer Hashalu Hondisa to be repeated, as the service was blocked in all parts of the country for approximately one month.
The beginning of tensions
The tensions began with the refusal of regional leaders, who had dominated national politics for the thirty years before Abe came to power in 2018, to extend the federal parliament to the mandate of representatives – national and local – and decided hold elections in your region in September.
Since then, all camps have deemed the other camp illegal. Ethiopian senators voted in early October to cut contacts and funding between federal authorities and Tigray officials.
In the context of this tension, surveillance operations were imposed on military personnel and equipment in the territory of the opposition.
Last Friday, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front prevented a general appointed by the Addis Ababa government from taking office there, who was forced to return to office after being informed that his “appointment is illegal”.
Tigray includes much of the federal state’s military personnel and equipment, a legacy of the 1998-2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which borders the region.
‘Devastating conflict’
According to a previous report by the International Crisis Group, the region includes “more than half of all armed forces personnel” in the country. The report warned of the possibility of a “devastating conflict that could tear the Ethiopian state apart.”
Tigray officials recently confirmed that they would not initiate a military conflict. “We will not be the first to shoot, nor the first to miss,” Getacho Rudh, a senior official with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, told AFP last week.
On Tuesday night, Wondemo Osamnio, another senior official in Tigray, told France Press that the federal government is concentrating forces on the southern border of Tigray, information that could not be independently verified.
“I think when it comes to military mobilization, this is not child’s play. This can start an all-out war,” added Wondemo, describing what they do as “playing with fire.”
“Anything can happen at any time. A small spark can ignite the entire region, so I think we are on high alert and I can assure you that we are capable of defending ourselves.”
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