Ethiopian Prime Minister Announces He Will Join The Army On The Battlefield Against Rebels In The Tigray Region | International | News

The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, promised that from today he will fight on the battlefield against the rebels from the Ethiopian region of Tigray (north), who in recent days took over cities some 220 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa .

“Now is the time when our country needs to sacrifice itself. Starting tomorrow (today, Tuesday), I will march to the battlefields to lead the national defense forces,” Abiy said in a message posted on his Twitter account at the latest. Monday time.

The president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, urged “all citizens” to defend the country and “confront the enemy” on the battlefield.

“It is a fight that determines whether we live or not. But we will definitely win. It is unthinkable that Ethiopia will be defeated,” added Abiy, who published the message after the executive committee of his Prosperity Party (PP) met this Monday in Addis Ababa to analyze the progress of a conflict that has lasted for more than a year.

The prime minister launched this harangue after the forces of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (FPLT) conquered last weekend the city of Shewa Robit, in the neighboring region of Amhara, about 220 kilometers from the Ethiopian capital, headquarters of the African Union (AU), among other international organizations.

War broke out on November 4, 2020, when Abiy ordered an offensive against the FPLT, the party that then ruled the region, in retaliation for an attack on a federal military base and after an escalation of political tensions.

To date, according to the UN, thousands of people have died and some two million have been internally displaced in Tigray, whose rebels have expanded the conflict in recent months to neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

War in Tigray, threat to the security of Africa

The FPLT, which dominated the Ethiopian government before Abiy came to power in 2018, has also formed an alliance with other insurgent groups, such as the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), active in the Oromia region around Addis Ababa. .

The fear that the rebels could take the capital of the second most populous country in Africa (more than 110 million inhabitants) has prompted the diplomatic efforts of the international community to achieve a cessation of hostilities and a negotiated solution.

The AU’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, has recently met with the leaders of both sides, but these talks have not yet yielded any fruit.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned last week in Nairobi that the Tigray war threatens the security of the Horn of Africa, and urged the warring parties to return to the “political process” to resolve the dispute.

Blinken reiterated that “there is no military solution to this conflict” and stressed that “all parties must recognize that.” (I)