Members of the new interim administration take office in Tigray, northern Ethiopia

5 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The recently created interim administration in the Ethiopian region of Tigray (north) within the framework of the peace process between the Government and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) has appointed a government made up of more than 25 people on Wednesday.

The new cabinet in Tigray has taken office in a ceremony led by the president of the TPLF, Debretsion Gebremichael, and the president of this interim administration and spokesman for the group, Getachew Reda, as reported by the local news portal Dimtsi Woyane.

During the event, Debretsion expressed his confidence that this interim executive “can do his job” and stressed that “the new interim administration will work together in the peaceful and political struggle to guarantee peace and development in Tigray.”

Likewise, Getachew stressed that the Tigray Acting Regional Administration -in which the TPLF has a majority, although the opposition Baytona party will also be represented- “will use all the resources of Tigray to guarantee the survival and security of the population”.

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 the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, 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.