TPLF leader says he sees “everything ready” for interim administration in Tigray to start work in Ethiopia

March 24 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), Debretsion Gebremichael, stressed that “everything is ready” for the interim administration established in the Tigray region (north), headed by the group’s spokesman, Getachew Reda, start its activities, within the framework of the application of the peace agreement signed in November 2020.

“Everything is ready for the interim administration to start its operations,” said Debretsion, who also applauded the Ethiopian Parliament’s decision to remove the TPLF from its list of terrorist organizations. Thus, he has detailed that Getachew has already initiated contacts with the central government on issues related to budgets and reconstruction.

Likewise, he has detailed that this interim authority is made up of members of the TPLF, Tigrayan scholars and Tigray opposition parties, while stressing that “the region’s population needs humanitarian assistance”, as reported by the Ethiopian newspaper ‘Addis Standard’.

Debretsion has also criticized that “the invaders are still in the region”, in reference to the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray – an area that they must leave within the framework of the withdrawal of troops agreed in the peace agreement -, and has reviewed that “the displaced have not returned and the criminals have not been brought to justice”.

“Residents have not been able to resume their normal routine and damaged properties have not been rebuilt. Our next move will determine the future of Tigray and its people,” he said, just a day after Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the appointment of Getachew as president of the so-called Tigray Regional Acting Administration, a new governing body agreed upon in the Pretoria peace agreement.

This new administration, dependent on the Ethiopian government but with certain powers of autonomy, has as its main objective the consolidation of supply routes to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid to those affected by the fighting, which would have left between 100,000 and 600,000 dead, according to estimates. unofficial statements by Ethiopian officials and the African Union, respectively.

The conflict in Tigray erupted in November 2020 after an attack by the TPLF against the main base of the Ethiopian Army, located in the capital of Tigray, Mekelle, after which Abiy ordered an offensive against the group after months of tensions at the political and administrative level. , including the TPLF’s refusal to recognize an electoral postponement and its decision to hold regional elections on the sidelines of Addis Ababa.

The TPLF accused Abiy of stoking tensions since he came to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to take office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within the coalition that has ruled Ethiopia since 1991, the ethnically based Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it viewed as an attempt to undermine his influence.