(3 minutes read)
- Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called on the Tigrayan rebels to surrender and claimed that the federal government forces are nearing victory
- Only in last week the East African country’s prime minister vowed to lead military operations from the front Abiy, a former lieutenant-colonel in the military, headed the battlefield after the TPLF claimed to control Shewa Robit, a town just 220 kms northeast of Addis Ababa by road
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called on the Tigrayan rebels to surrender and claimed that the federal government forces are nearing victory. Only last week the East African country’s prime minister vowed to lead military operations from the front.
In a message to the Tigrayan forces, the prime minister urged the people who are taking part in the war to return to peace and normalcy saying that the operations are led by people who did not have a clear vision or plan.
The northeastern region of Afar has been the epicentre of fierce fighting in recent weeks as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group tried to seize control of a critical highway that supplies the capital Addis Ababa.
Abiy, a former lieutenant-colonel in the military, headed the battlefield after the TPLF claimed to control Shewa Robit, a town just 220 kms northeast of Addis Ababa by road. Fears of a rebel march on the capital have prompted the United States, France, the United Kingdom and other countries to urge their citizens to leave Ethiopia as soon as possible. Abiy’s government maintains the TPLF gains were overstated and the city was secure. TPLF, however, has scotched the claims of the federal government and said Abiy’s deployment claim and the imminent victory as a “circus” involving “farcical war games”.
www.trendsnafrica.com has carried an editorial calling on both sides to maintain restraint and return to the negotiating table to sort out the vexatious issues. The international community has also been maintaining that stand.
