Ethiopian PM appoints TPLF spokesman as new ‘administrator’ of interim authority in Tigray

The decision takes place in line with the peace agreement agreed in November 2022 after two years of war

March 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, announced on Thursday the appointment of the spokesman of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray (TPLF), Getachew Reda, as the new “administrator” of the interim authority established in the Tigray region (north). in line with the cessation of hostilities agreement agreed in November 2022 after nearly two years of war.

Abiy’s office has published a statement on its account on the social network Twitter in which it has specified that the decision is in line with the decision adopted on March 18 by the Council of Ministers on the creation of this interim administration and has indicated that “the prime minister has appointed Getachew Reda as chief administrator” of it.

Likewise, it has specified that Getachew will have the “responsibility of establishing an inclusive administration” and “heading and coordinating the executive body in such a way as to guarantee the representation of all political actors operating in Tigray.” The appointment also comes after the TPLF itself nominated its spokesperson and member of the group’s executive committee for this position.

Getachew, who has the approval of the United States – especially after the positive meeting that the spokesman held last week with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, during his visit to the African country – thus becomes the president of the so-called Tigray Acting Regional Administration, a new government 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 the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the conflict, one of the bloodiest in the history of the continent. The fighting would have left between 100,000 and 600,000 dead, according to unofficial estimates by Ethiopian officials and the African Union, respectively.

The statement was published one day after the Ethiopian Parliament approved the withdrawal of the TPLF from its list of terrorist organizations, in which it was included in May 2021 along with the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which expressed its alliance with the TPLF in the middle of the war in Tigray and which in recent years has carried out dozens of attacks, especially in the Oromia region.

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.