March 4, 2026
“TPLF is preparing for war but it will be flooded away”
Borkena
Toronto – Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s interview in Tigrigna language with the state owned media is released on Thursday.
The forty minute long interview focused on the conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the post conflict situation including issues related to the Pretoria agreement and its implementation, the problem with the Eritrean government and why Eritreans started to experience problems in Ethiopia in recent years.
He blamed the TPLF for the start of the conflict that is said to have claimed over 600,000 lives in the two years bloody war. He described the organization as “backward with stagnant thoughts.” The TPLF painted itself as a champion of “revolutionary democracy.”
Abiy Ahmed on the other hand came up with neoliberal ideology by painting them a look of “homegrown” ideology. It has a homegrown hard cover too – “medemer” – synergy.
In the interview he said, one of the fundamental problems with the TPLF was that it refused to accept the “change” – he is making a reference to the reform measures that were introduced after the TPLF lost central power in April 2018.
He also blamed TPLF for spending the budget from federal transfer for Tigray to finance the war. The TPLF has admitted that it has over 200,000 armed forces even after the Pretoria Agreement. The core provision of the agreement which ended the bloody war was for the TPLF to disarm its forces. It did not happen.
Wolkait – which he described as ‘contested’ – is another issue for the difference with the TPLF.
Abiy also accused it of preparing for another round of war. “It is not going to be like last time. It will be flooded away,” he said.
On Eritrea
Abiy did not spare Eritrea too. He blasted the Eritrean leadership as anti-change and anti-development. He said, as he did during his last appearance at the Ethiopian parliament, that his administration’s problem with Eritrean leadership started when they “killed over 100 youth in Axum” during the war (2020-2022).
He even claimed that the Ethiopian army “tactically” blocked the Eritrean forces not to enter another town in the region. He accused Eritrean forces of looting the Tigray region.
There was a point when the Prime Minister sounded like an activist accusing the Eritrean government for not having interest in “Change” and “Development.” He said Eritreans are leaving their country because of the system in the country.
After Ethiopia and Eritrea ended two decades of hospitality in 2018, there was an influx of Eritreans to Ethiopia. That trend is no longer the case. There were several instances when Abiy Ahmed’s government arrested Eritreans in Addis Ababa and elsewhere. He justified his government’s action that Eritrean government spies were entering along with other Eritreans and that the government introduced restrictions.
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