Sturdy, 27 April 2024
borkena
Toronto – The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is reportedly engaged in extensive looting, rape and what appears to be scorched earth activities in the areas it controlled around Alamata.
Ethiopian Media Services (EMS) , a U.S. based media, on Saturday aired a phone conversation with a resident from the area who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the eyewitnesses’ account, TPLF forces are looting goats and sheep from the area and transporting them to the Tigray region. Health centers and schools have been looted.
On an individual level, according to the source, TPLF fighters are forcefully taking away necklaces, rings and mobile phones from residents who remain in the area after the TPLF last week took control of four districts in the area.
The Federal government does not seem to be responding to the situation and has not remarked about the latest development in the area. “People in the area are taken by surprise that the government is silent about it,” said a witness who spoke to EMS.
A few months after the Tigray Region Interim President, Getachew Reda, disclosed that the TPLF still has over 270,000 armed forces , several contingents of TPLF forces were deployed south of the Tigray region to control Alamata area. Its military action – which has displaced at least 50,000 residents from the area – is widely believed to be in clear violation of the cessation of hostility agreement that was signed in Pretoria in November 2022. In his latest remark about the development in the Alamata area, Getachew Reda said those who are causing the situation in Alamata area forces are hostile to the Pretoria agreement. His remark lacked specificity.
On Thursday, the African Union released a statement expressing “deep concern” about the development in the area and called for full implementation of the Pretoria agreement. The statement came a day after the Ethiopian government’s National Security Council issued a statement calling for TPLF to disarm its forces. However, the TPLF leaders have been making claims that they took control of the areas in Alamata after agreement with the Federal agreement. The federal gov’t did not deny or confirm the arrangement for the TPLF forces to control Alamata area.