News — human rights abuses in Ethiopia

Soldiers in the Ethiopian National Defense Force have arrested Sebhat Nega and eight other current and former high-ranking officials Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in the ongoing clash with the regional militant group.

Fana Broadcasting Corporate, a private news outlet seen as supportive of the ruling Progress Party (PP), described Nega as “the mastermind behind the destructive strategy of the TPLF junta”. He was said to be hiding in a “ravine” when he was found on Friday, January 8.

Nega is presently in his 80s. His sister, Kidusan Nega, a former Speaker of the Tigray regional state council was also arrested.

The other arrested TPLF members included former allies of departed Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, himself a member of the TPLF during the time he was alive. One of them, Abadi Zemo, was a former Ethiopian Ambassador to Sudan and a member of the TPLF junta political wing.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has described this stage of the clash with the TPLF as the “last phase“.

Ethiopia’s communications since the altercations began on November 4 appear to recognize that the country is fighting both a war of guns and identity. The TPLF has been Tigray’s regional government since the last decade of the 20th century and it is seen as the political organization encapsulating Tigrayan identity.

The region of Tigray, a vast hilly and arid area, is named after the Tigrinya-speaking Tigray people, Ethiopia’s fourth-largest ethnic group who are less than 10% of the country’s people.

In spite of the relatively small number of Tigrayans in the country, the TPLF has shaped post-Cold War Ethiopia more than any other political organization in the country.

In 1991, the militant group-cum political party led a coalition of militias and movements to overthrow the communist People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. After that, the group was part of governing coalitions, and at a point produced a prime minister in the late Meles Zenawi.

Due to disagreements with Ahmed‘s Progress Party in 2019, the TPLF left his governing coalition.

The government in Addis Ababa has sent out the clearest warning yet to regional forces of the beleaguered Tigray government to lay down their weapons or face Ethiopia‘s army in the regional capital Mekelle when a 72-hour ultimatum expires.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issued a statement announcing what he called the commencement of the “final and third phases” in the altercation with Tigray. Ethiopians forces have previously launched attacks on strategic Tigrayan positions in the north over the last few weeks.

“Realizing that we are now in the last stages of the law enforcement action, we call upon them (the Tigrayan forces) to take advantage of this last opportunity and surrender peacefully to the government in 72 hours,” the statement said.

Abiy also called on civilians in the region to stand with national forces against a “few greedy individuals that are seeking impunity”. Ethiopia believes Tigray’s government is hoping to bolster its side of the story by leading national defense forces into committing collateral damage to lives, property as well as historical and cultural sites.

Tigray is eponymously named after the ethnic group who call the northern regional state their home. The Tigray ethnic group constitutes only about 5% of the country’s population but it is thought to probably the richest. Tigray is represented by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which used to be led by former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The TPLF backed out of a governing coalition headed by the current prime minister over disagreements with Ahmed. These disagreements have since devolved into violent tensions.

Lawmakers in the country’s parliament have also proposed deliberating on a motion that seeks to characterize the TPLF as a terrorist organization.

The north of the country holds the bulk of Ethiopia’s military installations, a situation that resulted from the 1998 war with northern neighbor Eritrea. This has generated widespread fears that a full-on confrontation between the government and Tigrayan forces would only spark a civil war.

Ethiopia’s security is already fragile with different ethnic groups in other parts of the country clamoring for everything from inclusion in the national government to secession.

The Ethiopian army warned Sunday of an imminent attack on Mekelle, capital of rebellious Tigray state and seat of the local government that the federal government is seeking to dislodge, calling on civilians to flee while there is still time.

"The next decisive battle is to surround Mekelle with tanks," army spokesman Dejene Tsegaye told government media, threatening to lay siege to the town, stronghold of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) that rules the region.

The spokesman told the city's half a million inhabitants to "save yourselves".

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the start of army operations on November 4 against the TPLF, accusing them of seeking to destabilize the federal government and of attacking two Ethiopian military bases in the region.

Tigray authorities have admitted to attacking a federal army base, calling it 'preemptive action'.

On Saturday, the government claimed that the army was advancing towards Mekelle and had taken control of several towns, including Aksum and Adigrat, some 117 km north of the regional capital.

"Military forces have taken control of the town of Edaga Hamus, which is on the road from Adigrat to Mekelle," and is located 100 km from Mekele, a government agency, Ethiopia State of Emergency Fact Check, said Sunday.

"The forces are currently advancing towards the last objective of the operation, the town of Mekelle," she added.

Neither side's claims are independently verifiable, as Tigray is virtually cut off from the world due to a communications blackout.

The TPLF said Saturday that civilians were killed in an "intense bombing" of Adigrat by the Ethiopian army. The government claims that the military operation does not target civilians.

No accurate account of the fighting, which has resulted in at least hundreds of deaths since November 4, is available from independent sources.

But more than 36,000 Ethiopians have already reached Sudan, according to the Sudanese Refugee Commission.

After dominating Ethiopia's 15-year armed struggle against the militaristic Marxist Derg regime, which was overthrown in 1991, the TPLF controlled the country's political and security apparatus with an iron fist for nearly three decades, before being gradually pushed aside by Abiy when he became prime minister in 2018.