‘Literally None’: TPLF Says Troops Withdrawn From Ethiopia’s Afar, But Local Groups Doubt Claims
19:37 GMT 27.04.2022 (Updated: 11:36 GMT 23.11.2022)
© AP Photo / Gemunu Amarasinghe
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The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) claimed on Tuesday it had completely withdrawn its troops to Tigray from the neighboring Afar state, but local groups say TPLF forces remain in the area.
“For the record, there are no [Tigray Forces], literally none, left in [Afar],” TPLF spokesperson Getachew Reda tweeted on Tuesday. The incursion began in January amid claims of raids into eastern Tigray by militia groups based in Afar, but locals pushed back, saying there was no such group as the Red Sea Afar Force the TPLF claimed to be confronting.
Instead, according to locals, the intent was to attack refugee camps for the Red Sea Afar people, who hail from a part of Eritrea that the TPLF sees as part of a future Greater Tigray state. The TPLF was blamed for a February 3 attack on the Barahle refugee camp that killed five and sent thousands fleeing to safety.
The incursion had the added effect of further delaying a United Nations World Food Program (WFP) convoy then en route to Tigray from Djibouti. The convoy only arrived on April 2, after the TPLF and the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed agreed to an indefinite truce. Part of that agreement included the TPLF pulling out of Afar.
However, according to locals, the TPLF might not have left the region, and even if its troops have departed, the group has left behind landmines and unexploded ordnance that will continue to maim and kill.
We are seeking confirmation from #Afar regional authorities but there is report that TPLF is still occupying towns of Hida, Shahi gubi, Arado, qiddi village and barahle qasa xa side, also wacdes near konnaba. This does not sound like full withdrawal to us Mr. @reda_getachew
— Afar Watch (@AfarWatch) April 27, 2022
“We are seeking confirmation from [Afar] regional authorities, but there is report that TPLF is still occupying towns of Hida, Shahi gubi, Arado, qiddi village and barahle qasa xa side, also wacdes near konnaba,” information portal Afar Watch tweeted on Wednesday. They added that “TPLF has not left Afar. Even if it claims that, it has left explosives killing [Afar] children and civilians whose bodies are blown into pieces when they step on unexploded ordnance.”
Several more aid convoys have arrived in Tigray or are en route since the March truce began, including a large 47-truck convoy that set out on April 14. The TPLF has claimed that the inability of food or other supplies to reach Tigray since the start of the war in November 2020 was due to an intentional blockade by Ethiopian forces, which it called a “genocide,” but the UN has said both sides are to blame for food and supply shortages across the region, including in Afar and Amhara states that the TPLF invaded in the summer of 2021. The WFP estimates 20.4 million Ethiopians need some kind of food support.
Ethiopia: A @WFP led humanitarian convoy of trucks with food & other essential items, and fuel tankers is delivering life-saving supplies to communities in Tigray.
— United Nations (@UN) April 14, 2022
More on the work being done throughout the country: https://t.co/dXsfxBOzh3 pic.twitter.com/6ljjhbfe0R
The war started in November 2020, when the TPLF launched a sneak attack on ENDF troops stationed in Tigray amid an ongoing showdown between the Tigray government and Abiy’s, which the TPLF has refused to recognize as legitimate. Prior to Abiy taking office in 2018, the TPLF ruled Ethiopia for 27 years, and the ethnic Oromo leader has since taken steps to reduce the TPLF’s dominance of Ethiopian politics.
By the summer of 2021, the TPLF had expelled the ENDF from Tigray, attacked neighboring Eritrea, and launched an invasion of Amhara and Afar states that took its forces within 100 miles of the capital of Addis Ababa before being repulsed in December. Although the US has portrayed itself as a neutral bystander in support of peace, a secretly recorded meeting between the US and other Western diplomats and senior TPLF leaders revealed what Getachew later confirmed on Tigrayan television: that the US was secretly supporting the TPLF and approved of their potential overthrow of Abiy.
Following the TPLF retreat back into Tigray, Abiy announced the creation of a National Dialogue Commission to facilitate the defusing of tensions in the country, although his government was clear that this did not include negotiations with the TPLF, which is a designated terrorist organization. On Monday, the commission made its first report to the House of Peoples’ Representatives, the lower house of the national legislature, about its challenges in beginning its work.
