Ethiopia: meeting with Afar militiamen fighting against Tigrayan forces
Audio 01:25
A member of the Afar special forces, near the ruins of a house, in December 2020. Eduardo Soteras AFP / Archivos
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
As pressure from the international community increases for a ceasefire, the Ethiopian government has assured that it does not intend to remove the Tigrayan party of the TPLF from the list of terrorist organizations.
The TPLF is still engaged in fighting in northern Ethiopia, in the Afar region, near the Djibouti border.
An unbalanced fight against the militias of the Afar region, who fight with simple Kalashnikovs against the heavy weaponry of the Tigrayan forces.
RFI met some of these militiamen in northern Afar.
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With our special correspondent at Afdera,
Noé Hochet-Bodin
Abdileh Ali Nour, 45, juggles from phone to phone nonstop.
He coordinates his troops, who are fighting a hundred kilometers north of Afdera where he is.
“
We don't have an army with professional soldiers, just citizens who defend their property and their loved ones.
The Afars are used to defending their land.
This land belongs to their people, and they defend it.
»
His official role: head of security in the district of Berhale, now in the hands of the Tigrayan rebels of the TPLF.
“
It's true that we fell back because of their superiority.
But we will never give up our territory.
The situation can be reversed from one day to another.
If they lose their artillery and their tanks, for example, we could regain ground and our land.
»
David's war against Goliath
Mohammed Othan is a militiaman, he is 70 years old.
He had to leave the front at Berhale with several other war wounded.
Since then it has been in the provincial capital Semera.
For him, what is happening in Afar is a war of David against Goliath.
“
Because the Ethiopian army is not defending us so far.
We are alone.
They do not participate in combat.
Federal politicians even say there is no war when we are suffering a great tragedy.
»
He and the other militiamen cannot understand why the federal army does not come to help them on the front line.
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