• Arrests 9 defunct TPLF leaders
BY STAFF REPORTER
ADDIS ABABA – Four top officials of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) Junta were killed and nine others arrested, The Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) announced.
Defense Force Deployment Department Head Brigadier General Tesfaye Ayalew on Thursday said that the junta’s mouthpiece Sekoture Getachew, and Daniel Assefa (Ex-Ethiopia Security Chief Getachew Assefa’s brother), the former Head of the Tigray Finance Bureau, the two brothers Zeray Asgedom-the former Head of Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority-and Abebe Asgedom together with their bodyguards were killed while refusing to surrender to the federal forces.
Sekoture had publicly admitted that the attacks that were launched on the Northern Command on the night of October 4, 2020 had been perpetrated by the Junta saying: “We destroyed the Northern Command by carrying out preemptive lightning strike within 45 minutes”.
The rest officials that were killed used to chant a slogan: ‘Tigray will be a graveyard for the ENDF and the federal government”.
It is to be recalled that an unspecified number of soldiers and civilians were killed on October 4, 2020 and a sizable amount of military hardware had been looted by TPLF junta forces that prompting the government to launch a massive law enforcement operation.
In the statement, the General confirmed the deaths of the four senior officials of the junta and the arrest of nine other TPLF leaders.
The nine Junta leaders who are arrested include Teklewoini Assefa, former CEO of the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), Solomon Kidane, the former Head of the Tigray Urban Development Bureau, Gebremedhin Tewolde, the former Head of the Tigray Trade Bureau, and Woldegiorgis Desta, the former Head of the Tigray Transport Bureau.
Others include Abadi Zemo, former Ethiopian Ambassador to Sudan, Kidusan Nega (Sebihat Nega’s sister), the former speaker of the Tigray State Council, Tedros Hagos, the former President of the Meles Leadership Academy, Mihret Teklay, legal advisor of the Tigray State Council, and Berhane Adem Mohammed, a Property and Procurement Business Process Owner.
Being thankful for the entire Ethiopian people for their unwavering support for the elimination and arrest of these key members of the Junta, he said that these officials were arrested during a search operation in the jungle and caves.
Mentioning that the army is fulfilling its promise to hunt down the criminals, Brigadier General Tesfaye assured that the ENDF will continue its efforts of man hunting and prosecuting the remaining junta’s members.
The Ethiopian herald January 9/2021
