A Tigrayan Militia member stands next to construction machinery destroyed during the fighting between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) allied with Amhara Special Forces and Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) on the outskirts of Samre, Tigray Region, Ethiopia, June 23, 2023. Image @ REUTERS/Tiksa
Washington is tightening the screws on hardline elements within the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, announcing visa restrictions against TPLF figures and their immediate family members it accuses of sabotaging peace efforts in northern Ethiopia.
“Rising tensions between Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) hardliners and the Ethiopian government have threatened to reignite the conflict in northern Ethiopia and undermine peace and security across the entire region,” the State Department said in a statement on Thursday.
The move comes weeks after the TPLF made a dramatic political assertion in Tigray, reinstating the pre-war legislative council that had been dissolved under the November 2022 Pretoria Agreement, the deal that ended one of the century’s deadliest conflicts. On May 5, the restored council elected TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael as regional president, with Kiros Hagos named as speaker and Mihret Berhe as deputy speaker. Debretsion won by majority vote, with one opposition and three abstentions.
The TPLF accused the federal government of violating the Pretoria Agreement and mobilising troops in preparation for renewed conflict, while Addis Ababa accused the TPLF of working with Eritrea to “plot” a new war against the Ethiopian government.
“This visa restriction policy targets individuals who are responsible for, or complicit in, undermining resolution to the crisis in the Tigray region,” the State Department said, also citing clashes between TPLF and government forces earlier this year.
Analysts fear the move to restore the pre-war council could restart hostilities. “What we are witnessing right now in Tigray is that the TPLF has decided to reinstate the pre-war council, as well as to reinstate the wartime president, Mr. Debretsion Gebremichael. So, to me, this shows, symbolically and actually, that we are drifting away from the peace agreement,” said Desta Gebremedhin, a peace and conflict student at Mekele University.
The Tigray war, which ran from 2020 to 2022 and drew in Eritrean forces, killed hundreds of thousands through direct violence, the collapse of healthcare, and famine, according to researchers. Estimates vary, but according to the Council on Foreign Relations, up to 600,000 people were killed and millions displaced.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah