Ethiopia Addressing Humanitarian Concerns in Tigray: Deputy PM

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Ethiopians call for the end of the government's military actions in the northern Tigray region in front of the US State Department in Washington, DC, on November 9, 2020.

Xinhua News Agency

Mekonen also pushed back against "some entities" who wish to internationalise the conflict in Tigray regional state and said military operations in the region will be completed in a short period.

Since November 4, the Ethiopian government has been undertaking military operations against the TPLF, the ruling party in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region.

Addis Ababa

The Ethiopia Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonen, on Friday evening said his government is working to address the humanitarian concern in the country's restive Tigray regional state.

Mekonen made the remarks during discussions with the diplomatic community in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

"Humanitarian issues are our top priority, to take care of them, to manage in a very responsible and a very swift way," said the Deputy PM.

"We hope to share the progress on this issue to respective organizations soon and we expect everything will be managed as planned," he added.

Mekonen also pushed back against "some entities" who wish to internationalise the conflict in Tigray regional state and said military operations in the region will be completed in a short period.

"This is an internal issue. This (Tigray People's Liberation Front) criminal clique is orchestrating various campaigns. They intend to turn the country ungovernable," said Mekonen.

"The operation will not take long time. We will manage it as soon as possible in a short period of time."

Official war

Since November 4, the Ethiopian government has been undertaking military operations against the TPLF, the ruling party in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region.

The TPLF is now in an official war against the federal government that followed TPLF's reported attack against the Northern command of the Ethiopian Defense Force, a division that has been stationed in the region for over two decades.

The Ethiopian government has been blaming the TPLF, which was one of the four coalition fronts of Ethiopia's former ruling party the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), for masterminding various treasonous acts across different parts of the country with an overarching goal of destabilising the East African country.

Three of the former four EPRDF coalition members had last year joined other regional parties in establishing the Prosperity Party, as the TPLF refused to join.

The mounting differences between the federal government and TPLF exacerbated in September this year, when the Tigray regional government decided to go with its planned regional elections, which the Ethiopian parliament had previously postponed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.