In the early hours of November 4, 2020, the terrorist Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) group attacked the northern command of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) located in Tigray state. The group in its attack brutally killed members of the northern command and looted artillery and military equipment.
They were the first shots that have since affected the country calming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee from their homes. After the attack, the federal government has ordered a military response that successfully dismantled the group downgrading it to gruella fighters.
The attack was meant to disintegrate the country and its military forces and come back to power.
The Government Communication Services announced that the treasonous act and terrorist attack committed by the treasonous TPLF group on November 4, 2020, against the Northern Command of the National Defense Forces is to be remembered nationally on coming Wednesday.
State Minister for Government Communication Services, Kebede Desisa, lately said that November 4, one of the darkest days in Ethiopian history, will be commemorated on Wednesday under the theme, “I will not forget the day, I am part of the Ethiopian National Army”. He said the aim is to commemorate the sacrifices made by soldiers of the national army and the contribution of the Ethiopian people who defended the sovereignty of the nation.
In fact, before the attack, the TPLF has been arming and organizing irregular militias outside of the constitutionally mandated structure. The government has been gathering evidence from its intelligence and other credible sources that TPLF has heavily been involved in planning and orchestrating violence and conflicts across the nation that still continues to this very day. TPLF has been killings of civilians, displacing communities in many different parts of the country. TPLF military officials trained the outlawed OLF-Shane group intending to wreak havoc on the country exposing the country to external enemies.
But on November 4, 2020, the TPLF publicly declared that the group is the enemy of the country and it had crossed the red line attacking the national defense force risking the sovereignty of the country.
The attack on the Northern Command had been a continuation of the years of atrocities TPLF committed when it was in power.
Chief of the National Defence Force, General Birhanu Jula once said that the early hours of Wednesday, November 4, 2020, marked a very tragic day in the history of our country. The Tigray special force members surrounded and massacred their own brothers and sisters in several places in Tigray. This incident was painfully gruesome and inhumane. “I’ve never heard of such cruelty on one’s own people. This might be the first time this is happening in history,” of our country.
It was not only the act by itself that is outrageous but also the manner in which the attack was waged. Members of the National Defense Force had been part of the life of our citizens in Tigray for more than 20 years. The troops were building schools, constructing roads, helping Tigrayan farmers plow their farmlands and harvest their crops. They helped the people of Tigray in the fight against heavy desert locust invasion and COVID-19 pandemic in the region and other regions. Many men and women in the army married locally and have settled there for a long time. They were not an outsider. Nor did the people of Tigray consider the army a stranger.
The attack came after the continued provocation and incitement for violence by TPLF, the federal government maintained a policy of extreme patience and cautions to avoid any harm that such provocations would cause harm to the people of Tigray. While the Federal government used all means to thwart a military engagement against the TPLF, a war however cannot be prevented only on the goodwill and decision of one side, but on the mutual choice for peace by both parties. The last red line had been crossed with the attacks and the federal government, therefore, was forced into a military confrontation.
Following that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, under the direction of a Command Post, have been ordered to carry out their mission to save the country and the region from spiraling into instability. The law enforcement operation that has been ordered by the federal government is aimed to carry out its mission to save the country. Ordering the military, PM Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) once said that the final point of the red line had been crossed and the force is being used as the last measure to save the people and the country, he said.
The law enforcement operations launched by the federal government had clear, limited, and achievable objectives. The operation was aimed to restore the rule of law and the constitutional order and to safeguard the rights of Ethiopians to lead a peaceful life wherever they are in the country. The attack by the TPLF was mainly intended to disorganize the defense force and expose the sovereignty of the nation to enemies outside.
On the other hand, the attack has mobilized the people of Ethiopia to stand in unison against the anti-peace elements and protect their country from threats. The government also urged the people to stand with the national defense force and called for further military capacity in order to fully quell the hostility incited by the TPLF faction, and maintain peace and development strides of the nation.
Following the call by the government the people of Ethiopia, people from all corners of the country marched and protested against the criminal group. The public had been protesting against the actions of the terrorist group and stood with the government in supporting the military measures to against the TPLF group.
The conflict has been causing complicated problems in the social, economic and political welfares of the country; it is becoming a threat to the nation. The TPLF has been sowing a barbaric, disintegrative and racist agenda on the nation and caused a complicated social and political problem to the country. Now the conflict has expanded to neighboring states of Amhara and Afar states after the Ethiopian government declared a humanitarian unilateral ceasefire.
Soldiers of the terrorist group used government tanks to attack their former comrades in a military base which is inhumane and unexpected treason. The TPLF terrorist group had been prepared to attack the north command. They described a six-hour barrage in which some soldiers tried to escape from the back of the compound but were captured. The forces of the terrorist group even after the national army surrendered to them they stabbed the ENDF soldiers and shot them which shows the climax of their cruelty. Now that the group is doubling down its atrocities against the people of Amhara and Afar, Ethiopian people are rallying behind the Ethiopian military to uproot the group once and for all.
BY HAILE DEMEKE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD NOVEMBER 2/2021
