October 23, 2024
borkena
Toronto – In a zoom meeting with ethnic Tigreans in the Diaspora this past Sunday, Getachew Reda, president of the Interim Administration in Tigray, said “we have released 400 Eritrean captives.” He was making a reference to Eritrean soldiers captured during the war between Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Eritrea was involved in the war after the TPLF fired, it was reported during the war, rockets to Asmara. When the TPLF attacked the Northern Command of the Ethiopian Defense Force in November 2020, those soldiers who survived the unexpected attack retreated to Eritrea.
Getachew also said that “we released them unwillingly.” He added “we intended to use them as evidence during transitional justice.”
From what he said, there had been pressure from the Federal government of Ethiopia to release the Eritreans’ captives.
“We were asked to release them if we wanted to release” Tigrean forces captured during the war and “peace to return to the region.”
He highlighted that Debretsion Gebremichael, Tadesse Worede (who was the head of “Tigray Defense Force” during the war) and himself made a joint decision to release them.
Regarding the evidence for “transnational justice,” Getachew said “we have gathered much evidence.”
There had been claims of genocide in the region in connection the two years war. The TPLF had been implicating Ethiopian Defense Force, Eritrean forces and Amhara region special forces in the alleged “genocide.”
The war in North Ethiopia is estimated to have claimed about one million lives – including those killed during combat. Eritrea has not released the number of soldiers killed during the war as is the case with the Ethiopian government.
The Eritrean government and Abiy Ahmed’s administration collaborated during the war but their alliance did not leave long as relations soured following the Pretoria agreement.
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