Afar People’s Party Skeptical About Truce, “Concerned” About Possible War Between Afars and Federal Government

March 27, 2022

The party demanded the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces from the Afar region of Ethiopia 

Borkena

In a statement released on Saturday ( on social media), Afar People’s Party (APP) indicated that it is skeptical towards the humanitarian truce between the Federal government of Ethiopia and the  Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Both parties are not trustworthy, says APP.  

“The  Afar People’s Party is, however, sceptical about the fact that both sides are not trustworthy enough. They are trying to use all their maximum capacity to isolate and neglect the main stakeholder of this agreement, the Afar People by ignoring the reality on the ground,” said the statement. 

APP also condemned the Federal government and the TPLF for avoiding “the Afar People’s interest, ignoring the fact that they want to use Afar corridor as a major route to deliver humanitarian assistance to Tigray, neglecting the truth about encroachment and occupation of Afar Land by tplf and downplaying the atrocities, violations of basic human rights and acute humanitarian crisis in Afar.” 

It went on to say that the international community and the Federal government ignored Afar – through which the humanitarian aid is expected to be delivered and where more than 700,000 residents of Afar are displaced due to the TPLF military aggression. 

Furthermore, Afar People’s Party demanded the Federal and regional governments deploy Ethiopian National Defence Force in the Afar region. 

The full statement released on social media reads as follows: 

“The Afar People’s Party Statement on the truce deal between FDRE and TPLF.

The Afar People’s Party (APP) understand the Intentional [international] humanitarian law ,also know as the law of war and or law of armed conflict and how it guarantee the rights of Civilians in it’s four of  Geneva  Conventions and Additional Protocol I  and II .

Therefore, APP adheres to The Humanitarian law as it intended principally for the parties to the conflict and protects every individual or category of individuals not or no longer actively involved in the conflict.

The APP is Committed to the fundamnetal purpose of international humanitarian law  to end the suffering caused by war by protecting and assisting its victims as far as possible.

The Afar People’s Party also understands the recent statements from federal government and Tigray regional government positively. as the first step of both sides to halt the war and it might  be even clear the path to possibilities of  further arrest the war permanently if handled carefully.

The  Afar People’s Party is however, sceptical about the fact that both sides are not trustworthy enough. They are trying to use all their maximum capacity to isolate and neglect the main stakeholder of this agreement, the Afar People by ignoring the reality on the ground.

It’s cristal clear from federal and Tigray region’s statements, that they want to avoid the Afar People’s interest, ignoring the fact that they want to use Afar corridor as a major route to deliver humanitarian assistance to Tigray, neglecting the truth about encroachment and occupation of Afar Land by tplf and downplaying the atrocities, violations of basic human rights and acute humanitarian crisis in Afar.

The Afar People’s Party is willing to play a positive role in the making of peace and stability in Ethiopia.Ending these reckless battles and hostilities and stop human suffering immediately and permanently while prioritizing the Afar People’s interest and collective wellbeing of Ethiopians is our main objective.

Therefore, the Afar People’s Party calls upon:

1.The International community to understand the critical importance and role of the Afar People. The Dire humanitarian situation should be taken into account.APP requests from the international community and government to give equal & fair attention for nearly 700,000 Afar IDPs mainly women, children, & elderly people  in all humaniterian aspects evicted from their homes by the terrorist TPLF forces.

2. To cooperate and deliver the badly needed humanitarian assistance smoothly, and more importantly to build more trust for further collaborations, The TPLF aggressors must ceasefire and must withdraw from Afar immediately and unconditionally. If they have real security concerns, they can deal with the federal government about it.

3.The federal and regional governments must contain the horror of this conflict through the deployment of ENDF, the hundreds of thousands of IDPs should return to their homes with peace guaranteed and life saving as well as rehabilitation programs must begin immediately.

4.The international community to understand that our main concern this time, is another round of conflict between Afars and federal government, if they continue the way they are handling the issue, and their systemic betrayal of Afaris self defense. We are carefully following the very smart way of the federal government trying to scape responsibility and portray the Afar people as a trouble maker and obstacle in the process of dealing with tplf.

Afar will defend itself from any Illegal activities and will maintain its interest whilst working very genuinely and honestly to achieve mutual benefit of all parties.”