10 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, has stressed that the decision to disband and reintegrate the regional special forces “will be implemented in line with the plans” and has stated that it will be carried out “even if there is a price to pay”. after the Ethiopian General Staff assured that their proposal did not imply the disarmament or dissolution of these operations.
Abiy has indicated in a statement that the authorities “will take appropriate measures” against those who “deliberately play a distracting role” in efforts to disband these forces, the most notorious case of which is that of the special forces of the Amhara region, who fought alongside the Army against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF) during the two years of war in Tigray (north).
Thus, the Ethiopian prime minister stressed in a statement published on his Facebook social network account that these forces will be integrated into “other security structures”, something that “should be applied to all special forces in the regions”, before to add that there are “three options: join the Defense Forces –the Army–, the Federal Police or the Regional Police.”
“The issue is not disarmament, since they will receive more training and weapons,” said Abiy, who has stressed that there will be measures to “persuade” the “actors” who refuse to be part of this process. “There is no permanent benefit through temporary solutions,” he explained, before defending that “according to the world’s great military experts, the strength of a country’s Army is determined by its centralization and chain of command.”
In this sense, he has emphasized that efforts are being made to get the special forces of the different regions to join the National Defense Force”, before advocating that the members of these organizations “be treated adequately so that they able to render proper service,” including “receive military education and training at home and abroad.
“We thank the special forces of the regions for their service. We are at a time when we are going to include them in other security structures,” he reiterated, before insisting that “this decision has been taken and applied jointly with all regional leaders”. “We are going to try to explain and convince those who oppose without understanding it,” he has settled.
At the bottom of this issue lies the fear, acknowledged by the deputy chief of the Ethiopian General Staff himself, that these regional forces become a threat to the Army given that they are configured “around ethnic identities” that, at worst, In any case, they could end up degenerating these troops into militias opposed to the federal government.
The proposal has been raised in line with the cessation of hostilities agreement signed with the TPLF in November 2022 in South Africa and within the framework of the implementation of steps for peace, including the creation of an interim administration in Tigray headed by the spokesman for the Tigrinya group, Getachew Reda. In addition, Abiy has opened the door to talks with the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).
The OLA, which split from the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) after the 2018 peace agreement and is an ally of the TPLF in the war in Tigray, has claimed responsibility for several attacks –especially in Oromia– in recent months. . The OLF fought for decades for the secession of the Oromia region, but in 2018 it announced that it was giving up the armed struggle, accepting the prime minister’s offer of amnesty.
