BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
For over a decade, Ethiopia has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure such as hydro-electric dams, railways, roads as well as industrial parks in an ambitious bid to transform the poor, mainly agrarian nation into a manufacturing powerhouse.
But for two years Ethiopia has been pummeled by challenges: ethnic clashes, floods, and locust swarms and coronavirus lockdowns. Now, war has erupted since November between the army and forces loyal to the TPLF. The rebel group which is labeled as a terrorist group is now destroying public utilities and tells the people as if it was done by the government army so as to gain the direct support of Tigrayans.
The group has dismantled various infrastructure including religious institutions, public utilities including water, electricity, telephone, and other communication systems. It also damaged social institutions such as hospitals, schools, airports etc. Since the commencement of the law enforcement operation, the terrorist TPLF has been working for the dismissal of infrastructure of various kinds.
Tigray’s rebel forces destroyed bridges connecting the regional capital Mekelle with the rest of the country as soon as the law enforcement operation began. The desperate TPLF continued its offensive by dismantling four bridges which were connecting the town Mekelle with the rest of Ethiopia so as to hide itself from the rest of Ethiopia.
This rebel group did this not to account for the crime it did over the past 27 years while it was the ruler of Ethiopia as a whole. These forces had not been worried about the infrastructures that required huge amounts of capital, it destroyed the key road between Shire and Axum. The primary objective of the law enforcement operation was making this group accountable for destroying infrastructure and for crimes it has committed so far.
The Tigray region has been hit by an electricity blackout. The terrorist TPLF remnants have damaged over half a billion Birr worth electricity infrastructure within the past months, according to Ethiopia Electric Power (EEP).Targeting at isolating the Tigray people from the Ethiopian government, TPLF has destroyed grand infrastructure amounting to over a billion Birr targeting telecom, electricity, road, airports, and water supply facilities, among others.
EEP Communication Director, Moges Mekonnen told EH that the terrorist TPLF remnants are engaged in damaging infrastructure especially electricity lines in Tigray state. From the beginning, the terrorist group damaged electric sub-stations, conductors, towers, insulators and other EEP properties in November, 2020 that caused 70 million Birr damages on infrastructure only, he said.
He said, “The Ethiopian Electric Power has done immediate maintenance on the electric transmission lines to Tigray with an outlay of 240.2 million Birr after the first attack on the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) with a view to provide the people with access to electricity.” However, the terrorist group has managed to damage the renewed transmission lines again and caused further destruction.
In addition, the country has lost more than 245 million KWH of energy (146.2 million Birr) following the TPLF’s attack on the Tekeze Dam power transmission lines to the national grid, according to him.
Moreover, the terrorist remnants damaged the Wolkait and Humera substations that are still out of service as they require sophisticated materials imported from abroad for restoration.
In a press statement, the state utility firm Ethiopia Electricity Power (EEP) said TPLF “remnants” had attacked high-voltage line carrying electricity to Mekele, “causing total electricity blackout in the region”.
Heritages of the country are also targets of this destruction force. It made targeted monasteries and churches warehouses of armaments. It also deliberately attacked Al Nejashi Mosque, which is one of the oldest mosques on the continent, and Debre-Damo, one of the region’s famed cliff top monasteries, believed to date back to the sixth century.
Due to the war ignited by the terrorist TPLF, nearly 70 per cent of health facilities in Tigray have been vandalized and equipment looted, a report by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) stated.
The situation was having a “devastating” impact on the population. Only 13per cent of 106 facilities that teams from MSF visited between December and early March were operating normally.
They also found destroyed equipment, smashed doors and windows, and medicine and patient files scattered across floors in health centers in Debre Abay and Mai Kuhli in north-western Tigray. On a visit to a hospital in the central city of Adwa it found medical equipment, including ultrasound machines and monitors, had been deliberately smashed.
A hospital in the town of Semema had been set on fire while a delivery room at Sebeya was destroyed, the report said, adding the looting of health facilities still continues. MSF did not directly name perpetrators but called on “armed groups in the conflict” to respect and protect health facilities and medical staff.
It is the TPLF first instigated when the war took place in the Tigray state. At times TPLF had invaded the northern
command, it exposed the country to any warriors. As it was assisted by missiles, tanks and advanced armaments, the war was very severe and claimed the lives of many people. Following the war, various infrastructures have already been scratched, said Muluberhan Haile Tigray Democratic Party Public Relation Officer.
“As part of the interim government, we strived to back the public to normal circumstances connecting woredas with transports, opened markets, assembled infrastructure such as electricity, telecom, banks, water and other utilities.”
In the zone, airports and bridges were not damaged or functioning as usual. However, institutions such as banks were looted. However, other infrastructures can be easily fixed and provide middling service to the residents. Schools were damaged severely and office equipment at school, courts, and police stations were robbed. Criminals, jobless youths looted all the properties found in public offices even if there was some equipment returned participating the public at large.
Hospitals, health stations were also victims of the war. The TPLF junta took the ambulance and medicine to the jungle.
“I do not believe that this terrorist group represents Tigrayans who have still been suffering in the midst of poverty. This group betrayed the people who gave all it had during the struggle with the fascist Derg. Instead of working for the people, they are trading by its name so as to make its group beneficiary.”
Since it took power, it didn’t let the people exercise democratic culture allowing opposition political parties to operate in the region. It would rather work to dissolve them via killing its members and demolishing their properties. “As you know, the leadership of this organization was anti-democracy. I don’t remember the time when it worked for the prosperity of the people, said commander Gebremeskel Wolde Michael, Southeastern zone of Tigray State Militia Office Head Under the Interim Administration.
The pressures on the interim administration of Tigray state were not easy to explain. In short, even if the administration had been working for the restoration of infrastructure, the TPLF rebel groups killed most of the workers while they were striving to start social services and supply the grain of relief to the victims named ‘Anti Tigray’ or ‘Banda’.
All in all, The TPLF junta should be held accountable for destroying this infrastructure and for crimes it has committed so far.
The Ethiopian Herald August 17/2021
