Ethiopia: from the front, Abiy Ahmed promises "to bury the enemy"
Screenshot of a video posted on November 26, 2021 on Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Twitter account, announcing the takeover of the town of Kasagita.
© Twitter / Abiy Ahmed
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In Ethiopia, the prime minister was shown on television this Friday at midday, four days after announcing he would be heading to the front lines to take command of military operations.
Meanwhile, in Addis Ababa, authorities have taken further draconian measures under the state of emergency declared on November 2, as heavy fighting continues on several fronts.
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It is in camouflage uniform, cap and sunglasses, that Abiy Ahmed staged himself, a radio in hand, on the front of the Afar region.
In the images shot by the television channel of the Oromo region, his native region, he appears at the head of a section inspecting the bush.
Boasting the success of the current counter-offensive, he explains that the army was going to “
bury the enemy
”.
He says she took over the locality of Kasagita, in the savannah at the foot of the Tigray Mountains, where heavy fighting was reported last week.
He finally says that his soldiers are still advancing, being now less than 100 km from Dessie, the strategic crossroads whose fall had, at the beginning of the month, opened the road to the capital to the Tigrayan rebellion.
የምንፈልገው ወይ ኢትዮጵያዊ መሆን ወይም ኢትዮጵያ መሆን ነው :: pic.twitter.com/4OVCiXk5t2
- Abiy Ahmed Ali 🇪🇹 (@AbiyAhmedAli) November 26, 2021
At the turn of a sentence, Abiy Ahmed also alludes to an announcement made a few hours earlier on state television, saying that Addis Ababa University reserved the right to cancel the diplomas of those who would support the rebellion. , thus giving an indication of time to this television sequence. “
The enemy cannot afford to compete with us.
We are going to win, ”he concludes.
This communication operation took place the day after another turn of the army in the capital.
Four draconian rules, in particular intended for the media and their sources, were enacted Thursday, forbidding for example to report on the military situation outside official circuits, or to "
support terrorist groups under the pretext of freedom of expression
" , without further clarification.
On the ground, the situation has not changed much.
The rebels and the federal forces still face each other at several points of contact, around the last pass before the plain where the capital is located, in the mountains further north, as well as on the border with the Afar region.
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Ethiopia
Abiy Ahmed