Ethnic Tigray Opposition Parties Accuse TPLF over Worsening Situation in the Region

March 10, 2022

Opposition parties in Tigray are calling on the international community to influence change in overcoming looming humanitarian disaster that the TPLF made worse 

Borkena

People in the Tigray region are living in worsening social and economic conditions, say ethnic Tigray Opposition Parties that are operating in the region. 

They are blaming the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) for it. 

TPLF, which the Ethiopian parliament designated as a terrorist organization following a brutal attack on the northern command of the Ethiopian Defense Force, has still control over the Tigray region of Ethiopia although it was briefly removed from regional power following what the Ethiopian government call law enforcement operation in December 2020/21. 

The opposition parties in Tigray accuse the TPLF of not resolving the crisis in the region and of creating additional problems for the people in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, according to a report by DW Amharic service. 

They fear for an even worse situation to happen in the region unless the famine-like situation and lack of social service providers are not resolved. 

The parties called upon global actors to understand the circumstances under which people in the region are living and put pressure to end the crisis. 

Before the conflict in Ukraine, the situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia had been one of the leading agendas for the United States and the European Union to the extent of imposing sanctions on the Ethiopian government – something which triggered a resistance movement among Ethiopians in the country and abroad. 

Western governments were allegedly attempting to bring the TPLF forces, that dominated Ethiopian politics for more than 27 years after the US facilitated the takeover of power in 1991, back to power. 

In November 2021, western media outlets were reporting about the prospect of TPLF forces taking over the capital with sheer military superiority over the Ethiopian army, which never happened. 

The designated terrorist group is still militarily active and there are unconfirmed reports that it is raising over one million combatants, including possible child soldiers, for a fresh offensive military campaign against the Federal government of Ethiopia. 

Military incursions into the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara have been happening for more than two months now. Well over 300,000 residents of Afar region districts neighbouring the Tigray region had been displaced and hundreds killed, including women and children. 

Humanitarian assistance was delivered to the Tigray region via Afar but the latest TPLF military move in the region complicated the matter. 

Meanwhile, there are reports of negotiation with the TPLF forces which the Ethiopian government did not confirm officially. The United States and its allies have been pushing for a negotiated settlement, and the majority of Ethiopians, as seen in social media campaigns, have been opposing it on grounds that the move would make the TPLF politically relevant. And that is what the U.S. seem to have been pushing for, apparently. 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, during his latest parliamentary appearance, reflected the view that negotiating with TPLF is not a “bad thing.” 

The conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia started in November 2020 when the TPLF attacked several Northern Command bases of the Ethiopian Defence Force. 

There are about three ethnic Tigray Opposition parties operating in the region.