National Government of Tigray Regional State

Current Statement from the National Government of Tigray Regional State
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It has become a daily occurrence for the defense forces of Tigrai to achieve victory after victory!! Using only AK45 manage to capture enemies tanks, Stalin Organ, heavy artillery and others, the Tigrai defense forces have defeated the enemy forces marking its identity once again!!
It is already two weeks since the fascist, terrorist and dictatorial junta of Abiy Ahmed and his partner dictator and sadist Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea, armed land grabbers and mercenary armed forces have used all sorts of armament and declare war on Tigrai. The Tigrai armed forces has not yet take offensive measure, however, in defending measures the enemy forces have lost in every battle ground and sustained a big loss. The captured armed forces in Zalambesa and Badme front of the dictator Isayas and fascist, terrorist and dictatorial junta of Abiy have given their testimony to this effect.
Unholy coalition of the three forces have tried to surround and wage war in four corners against the people of Tigrai. Their memory is not serving them well, otherwise they should have known that the people of Tigrai never in its history succumbed or surrendered to any aggressor no matter what sort of armament or technology is used in the war of aggression. The aggressors cannot move forward as they have planned it and when many of their forces said we can’t move forward the commanders are ordering to shoot on their own forces from behind and front. The forces of the fascist, terrorist and dictatorial junta of Abiy Ahmed and his partner dictator and sadist Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea unlashed their anger on innocent unarmed civilian by killing and injuring them, grab their property including the doors of their home and their harvest. Let alone committing such a crime, to hear such act is so irritating and particularly when it’s against your own people, but this is the manifestation of the character of the aggressors. As continuation of this character today 16th November 2020 they have used fighter jets to bomb innocent civilian targets, churches and residence. This act of terrorism for the past two weeks will make the people of Tigrai more resolute to fight and repel the aggressors to their grave yard, the people of Tigrai will never kneel down to the actions of aggressors.
The fact on the ground is that government and people of Tigrai working in unity are defending the aggressors and achieving remarkable victories acknowledged by friends and foes, a new history is being registered. The special forces of Tigrai and militia are defending in a miraculous manner, the proportion in the fighting is one to two hundred people and yet achieving remarkable victory, enemy forces are fleeing leaving their armament and injured comrades behind. In few battle fields the militia forces of Tigrai using only Ak45 has captured tanks, Stalin Organ and heavy artillery. History is repeating itself; the wider world will soon testify the amazing victories achieved by the people and government of Tigrai. The National Government of Tigrai Regional State has never doubted that this will happened and Tigrai with its people and government will prevail.
The mass media run by the fascist, terrorist and dictatorial junta of Abiy Ahmed are drumming a hate propaganda against the people of Tigrai, for these media outlets, victory is committing genocide against unarmed Tigrayan civilians as there is no substantial victory by the junta to report. The people of Tigrai, the government and the command post of the armed forces of Tigrai know very well on selected targets and at the time of their choice will disseminate and finish the war in victories manner. This war is not between two armed forces, this war is a war of aggressors and people of Tigrai defending their right of existence, pride and self-determination. This is why mothers are blessing their children when they are sending them to the battle field, no one can tell better than Tegaru mothers about the consequence of the battle field, it was not lectured to them, nor they did not watch a film but unfortunately, they are forced to live it. The people of Tigrai are tolerating the hardship, lack of electricity, internet connection, banking service and other hardships imposed on them by the fascist, terrorist and dictatorial junta of Abiy Ahmed, but still they commit themselves and their resources to the war effort knowing well the consequence of living under the rule of King Abiy maneuvered by the dictator and sadist Isayas Afewerki of Eritrea. Tigrai is now a hell to its enemies by the consolidated effort of the people, government and armed forces of Tigrai. A mother of four children Zenebu Haftay resident of Adi-Gudom lost three of her brothers in the struggle for equality and self-determination and now during this struggle for existence donated all her golden jewelries stating that Tigrai is her pride and shine, as she knows well the objective of the aggressors and the importance of defending and winning the war.
This donation is a testimony of the efforts of all Tegaru residing in different parts of Tigrai in particular and Tegaru living abroad. The war is a war of aggression against people defending the right to existence, attempting to rule the people of Tigrai by force is like walking on a burning flame of fire.
This unjust war has forced many innocent Tegaru to displacement, hundreds of thousands of residents of wester Tigrai have been forced to be displaced and seek refuge in north western Tigrai and some have fled to Sudan. The efforts of the people of north western Tigrai to support their displaced sisters and brothers is much appreciated and the brother people and government of Sudan is as usual receiving our people during this testing time, we would like to say thank you on behalf of the people and government of Tigrai. It is paradox when own government in collaboration with foreign power is committing genocide, a brotherly neighbor country is giving a safe place to the people who were forced to flee the genocide. The National Government of Tigrai Regional State call upon the international community to condemn the genocide committed by air and land against innocent civilian Tegaru and support the displaced people during this testing time.
In the past two weeks the defense forces of Tigrai using only Ak-45 have managed to capture enemy tanks, Stalin Organ and heavy artillery, the battle of the past two weeks was marked with victory by the defense forces of Tigrai, this is testimony to its identity. The defense forces of Tigrai will fully defeat the aggressors in a short but bitter struggle and soon we will hear the war will be over, the people and government of Tigrai will have no doubt about the outcome of the war but it regrated the loss of live and hardship imposed upon the innocent civilian population, the people and government of Tigrai never initiated this war but forced to join and the inevitable victory will not be long, Tigrai will prevail.
Tigrai will be the grave yard of dictators and aggressors and not their paly ground !!!
Tigray Communication Affairs Bureau
16th November 2020,Mekelle

Ethiopian government has been rounding up ethnic Tigrayan security forces

The Ethiopian government has been rounding up ethnic Tigrayan security forces deployed in United Nations and African peacekeeping missions abroad and forcing them onto flights to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, where it is feared they may face torture or even execution, according to an internal U.N. account.

The moves come as Ethiopia is preparing a military offensive against the capital of the country’s Tigray region, Mekelle. Conflict erupted earlier this month between federal and Tigrayan forces in the ethnically divided nation, which for decades was under de facto rule by the minority Tigrayans. The alarm inside the U.N. suggests that Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, may be expanding the country’s weeks long conflict beyond the country’s borders. It has alarmed human rights advocates and U.N. officials, who fear that the U.N. blue helmets may be persecuted upon their arrival back in Ethiopia.

The targeting of Tigrayan military officers in foreign peacekeeping and military operations comes amid rising fears that an Ethiopian government offensive against Tigrayan rebels inside Ethiopia could devolve into ethnic cleansing, with atrocities reported on both sides. The human rights watchdog Amnesty International recently issued a report detailing “the massacre of a very large number of civilians” in northern Ethiopia earlier this month, allegedly by groups loyal to the Tigrayan forces, in a grim harbinger of violence to come. Meanwhile, refugees fleeing the violence said they were targeted because they were Tigrayan.
In South Sudan earlier this month, Ethiopian soldiers disarmed a senior ethnic Ethiopian Tigrayan officer, escorted him to the capital of Juba, and forced him onto a Nov. 11 Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa, according to the internal account, which was reviewed by Foreign Policy.

Ten days later, the Ethiopian contingent at the U.N. base in Juba reportedly detained three other Tigrayan officers. The officers, according to the internal account, “were coerced to take the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Juba to Addis Ababa. As of now their whereabouts are unknown.”

The U.N. Mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, “has become aware that three soldiers were repatriated back to their country on Saturday without the Mission’s knowledge,” a senior U.N. official at the mission said. “Our Human Rights Division is working to follow up on their situation.”

“If there are any incidents where personnel are discriminated against or have their rights violated because of their ethnicity or they have concerns about their situation, this may involve a human rights violation under international law,” the official added. “As a result, the UNMISS Human Rights Division is currently liaising with the Ethiopian peacekeeping command in South Sudan and has requested access to any contingent personnel who might, for any reason, be compelled to return home and be in need of protection.”

The crackdown has spread to other African countries where Ethiopian peacekeepers and troops are deployed, including in Abyei, a disputed territory claimed by Sudan and South Sudan, and Somalia, where thousands of Ethiopian troops have been helping the government fight Islamist al-Shabab militants. As many as 40 Tigrayan officers and soldiers serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia have also been recalled to Ethiopia, according to one diplomatic source.

At Ethiopia’s U.N. mission in New York, the senior military attaché who oversaw peacekeeping issues, a Tigrayan, was fired after just months on the job, precipitating the purge of other Tigrayan officers from peacekeeping missions abroad, diplomatic sources said.

Ethiopia has seen deepening conflict between the country’s Tigray minority—which accounts for just over 6 percent of the population but played a dominant role in Ethiopia’s political life for decades, and whose status was reinforced under Meles Zenawi, an ethnic Tigrayan who served as prime minister and president of Ethiopia from 1991 until his death in August 2012—and the country’s largest ethnic groups including the Amhara and Oromo, who account for more than 60 percent of the county’s population.

Tigray’s War Against Ethiopia Isn’t About Autonomy. It’s About Economic Power.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is fighting the country’s revanchist old regime, which is intent on recapturing the economic and political influence it once held.

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Western and regional powers are more divided than they were during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, but they can still exert influence to prevent the fragmentation of Ethiopia’s federal system.
During Meles’s tenure, Tigrayans were given key posts in the government and the military, and they continue to hold key leadership positions in overseas peacekeeping missions, raising questions about the ability of Ethiopian contingents to function following a purge. But the Tigrayans’ privileged position has been threatened since the election of Abiy, an ethnic Oromo, in 2018.
The latest crisis follows a recent dispute between the federal government and the Tigrayan regional government over the decision to postpone national and regional elections in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Tigray’s local leaders went ahead with an election, which resulted in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) winning all the seats. The federal parliament declared the vote null, and federal troops are seeking to impose military control over the Tigray region.

The conflict in Ethiopia has killed hundreds—and perhaps thousands—of people and sparked a new refugee crisis in what is historically one of the most politically unstable regions of the world. Some 30,000 refugees have fled from Ethiopia into neighboring Sudan in recent weeks, fueling concerns that the new refugee influx could destabilize Sudan’s fragile transitional government.

Senior U.S. officials have called for an end to hostilities and independent investigations into the reports of civilian massacres.

“The ethnic dimension is one that everybody is very concerned about,” said Tibor Nagy, the top State Department diplomat on Africa, in a briefing with reporters on Nov. 19.

Nagy also condemned the TPLF’s reported missile attacks on neighboring Eritrea earlier this month, calling it an attempt to “internationalize the conflict” that “make the situation more dangerous.”

The conflict has also taken on an economic lens. “This war is ultimately a battle for control of Ethiopia’s economy, its natural resources, and the billions of dollars the country receives annually from international donors and lenders,” Kassahun Melesse, an assistant professor of applied economics at Oregon State University, wrote recently in Foreign Policy. “Access to those riches is a function of who heads the federal government—which the TPLF controlled for nearly three decades before Abiy came to power in April 2018, following widespread protests against the TPLF-led government.”

“In other words, this is not a conflict over who gets to rule Tigray, a small region whose population accounts for a mere 6 percent of Ethiopia’s more than 110 million people,” Melesse wrote. “It is a fight over who gets to dominate the commanding heights of the country’s economy, a prize that Tigray’s regional leaders once held and are determined to recapture at any cost.”

That struggle is playing out in U.N. peacekeeping missions.

Ethiopia is one of the two largest contributors to U.N. peacekeeping missions, with more than 6,700 uniformed personnel, most serving in Darfur, Abyei, and South Sudan. Tigrayans have played a key role in U.N. peacekeeping operations.

Earlier this month, Ethiopia recalled more than 3,000 troops from Somalia to reinforce its military operations against the Tigrayans. The government disarmed between 200 and 300 Tigrayan soldiers who were posted in Somalia, U.S. and U.N. officials said.

“The peacekeepers are not being disarmed due to ethnicity but due to infiltration of TPLF elements in various entities which is part of an ongoing investigation,” an Ethiopian government task force told Reuters, which previously reported on the Tigrayan soldiers in Somalia being disarmed.

“All officers and soldiers from Tigray were arrested and detained upon arrival in Addis,” according to the U.N. account reviewed by Foreign Policy. “There are reports that some have been subjected to torture and extra-judicial killing.”

Privately, U.S. officials fear that the massive withdrawal of troops will leave Somalia, already one of the world’s most fragile states, in a precarious position and vulnerable to new offensives from terrorist groups such as al-Shabab.

In Abyei, the U.N.’s Tigrayan deputy force commander, Brig. Gen. Negassi Tikue Lewte, disappeared from the U.N.’s radar after traveling to Addis Ababa earlier this month. The brigadier general—who is serving under a U.N. contract—made a request for leave on Nov. 15. Shortly after, Ethiopia sent the U.N. a diplomatic note informing it to find another officer to fill the position.

“He was apparently recalled to Ethiopia and since then his whereabouts seem unknown,” according to the internal U.N. account.

The purge has raised complicated legal and political challenges for the U.N., which traditionally defers to foreign military contingents to manage troop rotations and handle disciplinary issues. The Ethiopian government has privately insisted that the repatriated Tigrayan troops and officers are simply on leave. But at least one of the officers, the deputy force commander in Abyei, is serving under a U.N. contract, imposing a greater responsibility on the U.N. to ensure his protection.

The U.N.’s peacekeeping department’s spokesperson, Nick Birnback, confirmed that the organization is “aware of the issue; we are very concerned and we are taking this matter extremely seriously.”

“At the moment, we are ascertaining all the relevant facts and we are or will be in touch with all relevant peace operations and governments in this regard,” Birnback added. “All troop-contributing countries have obligations under applicable international law, in accordance with relevant norms, standards and instruments.”

The Ethiopian missions in the United States did not respond to requests for comment. But human rights advocates have voiced concern about the reports.

“If reports of discriminatory Ethiopian repatriation of ethnic Tigrayan peacekeepers are true, they are deeply disturbing, given credible reports of profiling and arbitrary arrest of ethnic Tigrayans in Ethiopia,” said Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director for Human Rights Watch.

“If the reports are confirmed, the U.N. should also consider suspending Ethiopian participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations,” Charbonneau added. “The U.N. needs to send a clear message to all governments that it will not ignore abuses against peacekeepers serving under the U.N. flag.”