BY ADDISALEM MULAT
In the present circumstances, the terrorist TPLF group has continued perpetrating atrocities with impunity in the Afar state and hindering humanitarian aid from entering into the Tigray state to use hunger as a political weapon, this is its sly nature and fraudulent to play a victim card. The vanishing terrorist group time and again has been annihilating thousands of civilians and displacing millions.
Despondently, the group has been intensifying the stakes of its criminal behavior against civilians in the Afar state. The group has also been creating manmade humanitarian crisis principally ignored by the international community. However, the international community stands idle and remains tightlipped regardless of the continuous terrorist group carnages taking place in the Afar state.
In the same vein, the terrorist group has been committing extrajudicial slaughters and devastating properties of the residents of the Afar people. In consideration of the foregoing, the numbers of displaced people who need humanitarian assistance are getting bigger every now and then.
In connection with the blocking of humanitarian aid, the Afar People Party stated that the terrorist TPLF has continued blocking humanitarian aid routes, attacking innocent civilians in Afar using heavy artillery, and exacerbating problems at a time when the government of Ethiopia is preferring peace talks to war.
In his telephone conversation with local media, Afar People Party Head Musa Adem said, the terrorist group has reinvaded Megale, Abala, as well as its environs, and blocked humanitarian aid routes towards Tigray state merely to employ hunger and social chaos as war.
“The terrorist remnants are seriously attacking innocent civilians in Afar, Abala, and others using heavy firearms at the time when the government is willing to pursue the peace process with all concerned in the country and it is working hard on ensuring peace via conducting inclusive national reconciliation,” he stated.
Putting the peace effort exerted by the government through releasing political prisoners, he said, terrorist TPLF is highly waging war in Afar and Amhara states merely to make Ethiopia weak and hold its journey towards development prosperity back.
He said, “The people of Tigray and Afar states have had long-lasting relations, fraternity, and inestimable neighborhood. However, the terrorist group is simply running to quench its power thirst and hit the ill-intended mission it has developed for years, which is impossible and unacceptable at all.”
He further said that as the terrorist leftovers have blocked the route to Tigray at the Afar border, the humanitarian aid is not right now delivered to northern Afar let alone to Tigray state. This is a clear manifestation of the Terrorist group’s irresponsibility and deep-rooted hostility against its people.
On the topic of the issue, Permanent Mission of Ethiopia to the United Nations said the terrorist TPLF group has retaliated and blocked Abala and Magale in Afar which is the main humanitarian aid corridor to Tigray. TPLF leaders are starving people in pursuit of a perilous political game. Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced due to a fresh attack of the terrorist TPLF group in Afar state.
As to the latest statement of Afar State, the TPLF captured Magale and Abala, and heavy fighting broke out in the Aseda area of Barahle district. It is blocking its own aid convoys, as it has been since July, for propaganda purposes.
According to Afar State Communications Affairs Office, TPLF has crossed into the Kibeltrasu zone in the Afar state and launched a fresh attack in Abala, Megale, and Berhale. TPLF leaders seized over 1,000 humanitarian aid trucks for months, trucks being used to transport TPLF fighters and their weapons to attack aid routes in Afar State.
In recent times, on the subject of the issue, Foreign Affairs State Minster Ambassador Redwan Hussein told World Food Program (WFP) Regional Director Mikael John Danford that TPLF forces have committed serious human rights violations and caused immense destruction and looting of properties in the Amhara and Afar states. Recently, the federal government has decided not to enter the Tigray State aiming at maintaining peace and stability of the country, but the TPLF has continued its aggression in the neighboring states, refusing the government’s effort for peace.
The state minister further noted that the trucks that the federal government dispatched to deliver humanitarian aid to Tigray have not yet returned back and the TPLF is still using the vehicles to transport its combatants. The international community’s silence to the situation has created a challenge to deliver humanitarian support to the needy.
The government is responsible for protecting the safety of citizens and if the terrorist group is continued its belligerence, appropriate measures will be taken to maintain the safety of citizens. On the other hand, the false narratives released from the officials of the TPLF accusing the federal government of targeting civilians are baseless, he explained.
Be that as it may, in an exclusive interview with ENA, Addis Ababa University, College of Law and Good Governance Studies Dean Getachew Assefa said, even if the government has decided to halt the military activity, TPLF has opened fronts in areas where the aid route to the Tigray region.
“You don’t hear any condemnation from the international community about such blockages. Another important demonstration is that we have seen massive human rights violations in Afar and Amhara regions where the TPLF occupied” and the international community decided to ignore.
There is clear evidence of abuses of innocent civilians, including rape and destruction of properties like educational institutions and facilities in Amhara and Afar regions.
He pointed out that such atrocities did not make headlines by the international Medias, diplomats, and leaders of countries. “This demonstrates that those who are making noise are not about human rights violations in Ethiopia.”
There is a hidden agenda, which essentially is about forcefully imposing their views or preferences on the Ethiopian people and the government, the scholar noted.
According to the legal scholar, the international community is using humanitarian assistance, humanitarian intervention, or humanitarian crisis to use as a pretext.
Therefore, “The government must essentially hold its ground and demonstrate that Ethiopia is on the right track, and has to continue to behave within the principles of international law protecting its citizens and also protecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Getachew further stressed that the government must be diplomatically aggressive. “We have to tell the facts to the international community, and we have to work with the friends of Ethiopia and work with nations that are willing to listen to the truth.”
It is to be recalled that recently, the Government Communication Service disclosed that the terrorist group TPLF has obstructed humanitarian support to the people of Tigray.
Due to the government’s unwavering support for humanitarian relief to the people of Tigray, daily aid has been sent directly to the region. Since July 12, 2021, the government and people of the Afar Region have facilitated humanitarian supplies donated by partners for the Tigray Region, which were delivered by 1010 trucks in response to a central government order and out of the Afar people’s and regional government’s fraternal love and collaboration.
The terrorist group, TPLF, on the other hand, is cruel for utilizing the people of Tigray as a political trade platform. Evidence reveals that the group is using the 1010 trucks that traveled into the region to deliver humanitarian aid as military logistics in its current attack of neighboring Amhara and Afar, rather than returning them.
While the terrorist group TPLF invaded the Amhara and Afar districts and looted hospitals, medical centers, schools, and universities, killing and raping civilians, international institutions such as the WHO remained mute. Those international institutions maintained their one-sided, biased perspective, ignoring all of the harm that the terrorist group TPLF has inflicted upon the people of Amhara and Afar states.
The Ethiopian Government is regularly discussing with stakeholders and implementing different corrective steps to guarantee that the people of Tigray get uninterrupted aid. The government is making all 118 World Food Program trucks fully operational, recognizing that there are 1,010 vehicles in the region that have yet to return. With this and more, the Ethiopian government expresses its dedication to resolving continuing issues and streamlining the delivery of aid. Furthermore, offering complete security for drivers during the procedure.
The Ethiopian Herald February 1/2022
