TPLF forces suffer heavy losses, agrees to AU mediation: UPDATED
TPLF forces suffer heavy losses
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As the TPLF suffer heavy losses in their allegedly US-instigated war against the Ethiopian federal government, the rebel insurgents have agreed to an African Union-led process of negotiation.
*UPDATE* As at the time of publication, Eritrean forces are said to be engaging Tigrayan forces on the border, dealing a further blow to TPLF insurgents.
Before launching an offensive into the Ethiopian province of Amhara, the TPLF had resisted all overtures to a AU-led mediation in the conflict. According to Ethiopian diplomat and historian Mohamed Hassan:
“All their offensives have faced decisive military defeats, especially on the crucial western front on which they were counting to open a corridor to Sudan. Now they are left with no choice but to seek time by claiming willingness for peace negotiations”
Hassan went on to say that former UN peacekeepers who defected to fight for the TPLF suffered heavy losses that resulted in the failure of the western offensive.
Speaking to People’s Dispatch, Hassan said that the former peacekeepers were “were trained in Sudan by Israeli commandos for nearly a year.” Those troops together with other TPLF fighters who were based in Sudan, failed to capture Humera and Wolkait. which were annexed into Tigray State when the TPLF took central power in Ethiopia in 1991.
After ruling over Ethiopia with US-backing for the next 27 years the TPLF was removed from power by by pro-democracy protests in 2018. President of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed instituted a regime of civil rights reform, lifting the ban on press, opposition parties, and freeing political prisoners.
As the regime of peace and reform made President Ahmed a popular figure through the Horn of Africa, the TPLF were reduced to regional irrelevance. It is alleged that the US instigated the rebellion of the TPLF against the Ethiopian federal government in order to protect US interests.
To read more on the subject, check out this interview with Former Ethiopian diplomat and historian Mohamed Hasan conducted by Pavan Kulkarni. An extract:
PK: What is it that the US and Europe want to extract from Abiy Ahmed’s government by imposing such pressure?
MH: It is not for extraction anymore; I think they now want to overthrow the government. Because they didn’t like the Tripartite agreement, which was signed in 2018 in (Eritrea’s capital) Asmara between Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Through this agreement, the three states declared that the conflict among them had been resolved, and that they are going to start a new project for cooperation called The Horn of Africa Project. This resolution of the antagonism between African states and people is not appreciated by the United States and the European Union (EU). They find this is a very bad example because, in the long term, it might weaken and eventually collapse Africa’s NATO, namely the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). This is a problem for Brussels and Washington.
