Tigray: Eritrea engaged in fighting despite denials
An abandoned Tigrayan forces tank near Mehoni, in southern Tigray, Ethiopia, December 11, 2020. AFP - EDUARDO SOTERAS
Text by: Léonard Vincent Follow
4 min
In Ethiopia, fighting continues in parts of Tigray province, access to which the press is still prohibited.
Despite official denials, a senior Ethiopian officer and civilian administrator have publicly confirmed that Eritrean troops are well engaged in the fighting against what remains of the TPLF, the dissident party that ruled the province until November.
And it seems they play an important role in the war.
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In the eyes of independent observers of the Tigray War, the Eritrean commitment is beyond doubt.
"
Asmara's army controls the towns of Adoua, Shire and Adigrat, as well as the roads and suburbs of Mekele,
" said journalist Amanuel Ghirmai of Radio Erena, relying on military sources and testimonials from residents.
He adds that he has spoken with families in Eritrea, having among them soldiers wounded in Ethiopia and being treated in hospitals in their native country.
"
Along the border, the disputed towns of Badmé and Zalambessa are also under Eritrean control
," confirms Norwegian researcher Kjetil Tronvoll, from the University of Bjorkness.
Residents are being given a choice, he adds: accept an Eritrean identity card or flee their homes.
Men of gun-bearing age are often shot, he said.
Eritreans have committed "
war crimes and crimes against humanity
," he concludes.
The only question is whether we can qualify some of them as acts of genocide
.
"
These two observers echo numerous other testimonies of killings and looting committed by Eritrean troops in Tigray, while the Ethiopian authorities are content with brief denials.
For them, the Eritrean president's war goal is however clear: destroy
the TPLF
and permanently weaken Tigray.
“
Issaias Afeworki accuses the TPLF of having prevented the development of Eritrea for twenty years,”
explains Kjetil Tronvoll.
Today is his revenge.
"The proof, according to Amanuel Ghirmai: the destruction of hotels and factories by Eritrean soldiers that we have seen in Tigray," he explains, "
is an exact replica of the destruction committed by the Ethiopian army in the Eritrean towns of Barentu, Senafe or Tessenei, during the 1998-2000 war
”.
Frustration in the Ethiopian ranks
The destruction operations are "
too well organized, too well orchestrated to be the work of isolated elements
," adds the academic Kjetil Tronvoll, who was in Tigray just before the outbreak of military operations.
"
The soldiers have orders and the orders come from above, from Issaias Afeworki in person,
" adds journalist Amanuel Ghirmai, who worked for the Ministry of Defense before fleeing his country.
For Ethiopia, which is also engaged on other fronts on the border with Sudan or in the state of Benishangul-Gumuz, the Eritreans seem irremovable today in Tigray, say the two men.
There is a certain level of frustration in the Ethiopian army, they both explain, as revealed by statements by Ethiopian General Belay Seyoum at the end of December, according to whom Eritrean troops intervened in the conflict "
uninvited
". .
Or those of the acting mayor of Mekele, Ataklti Haileselassie, who said in a video earlier this year that the Ethiopian government "
is now working to get them out of the region quickly
."
But that does not seem to be Eritrea's will.
“
In Tigray today
, concludes Amanuel Ghirmai, it is
Issaias Afeworki who dictates his law
.
"
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