European Union Tacit Support to TPLF in the Conflict in Ethiopia

March 12, 2021

The European Union has called for an end to the conflict and “political solution” in the post-war stage of the conflict when the Ethiopian Government is saying that it is just hunting TPLF leaders that are not yet captured or neutralized 

Borkena 

A day after about 60 Ambassadors and Diplomatic mission visited the Tigray region of Ethiopia, The European Union, via the EU office in Addis Ababa, announced priorities for the region. 

In a Twitter message on Friday, March 12, it said  “Thanks to Tigray Interim Administration for frank briefing of EU envoys in Mekelle March 10. Needs are huge and EU priorities clear: Stop the conflict and all human rights violations, withdrawal of Eritrean army, assistance to the Tigrayan people. #TeamEurope remains committed” 

It is unclear if the use of the language “Tigrayan People”, instead of people in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, is not a deliberate  one or just an endorsement of rhetoric from TPLF political forces (now leading the infowar in the cyber world) which seems to have the vision to prepare people in the region for a different political trajectory. The EU Twitter message also makes a mistake that there are people in the region who are not ethnic Tigreans – people that are equally affected by the war between TPLF and the Ethiopian Defense Force.  

On Thursday, this week, the European Union Council  published a press release in which it talked about the situation in the Tigary region of Ethiopia. 

Describing the development as ” a complex domestic situation,” it indicated that it could entail “major implications for the greater region.” 

Regionalization (and internationalization) of the conflict is not a new narrative. TPLF attempted to make it one when it was firing rockets at Asmara, Eritrea’s capital in November 2020. At the time, the US government understood it that way and condemned TPLF unequivocally pointing out that the operation is a law enforcement one and an internal affair of the Ethiopian govenment.  

Moreover, the European Union called for a “political solution” and encouraged the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration to cooperate with the African Union in the interest of preserving  “the stability of the whole region”.

The implication of “political solution” may mean a tacit recognition that the TPLF is still alive and operational.  In fact, the EU was explicit when it said that ​”the EU urges all parties to immediately end violence in the Tigray region, and ensure full, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access to all people in need in all areas.” 

Having reversed TPLF attack of on the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Force on November 4, the Army defeated 250,000 TPLF forces in a span of a little over two weeks and that the government of Ethiopia declared that the TPLF is no longer there as an organized force.  The Constitutionally established National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) similarly cancelled TPLF as a political organization owing to treason crimes. 

There are still reports of security issues in the region, confirmed by the provisional administration in the region, but the Ethiopian government says these security issues emanate from dispersed remnants of TPLF that can no longer engage in conventional warfare.