Int'l Community Should Grasp Truth that TPLF Not Reliable Negotiating Partner: Conflict Observer

Addis Ababa September 16/2022/ENA/ The international community has to realize that the TPLF is inherently not a reliable negotiating partner in any respect, Scoop Independent News Editor-in-Chief, Alastair Thompson told ENA.

Thompson, who is an observer of the northern Ethiopian conflict, said the federal government had created a peace committee and stated very clearly that it was willing to accept talks anytime and anywhere.

Regrettably, the government’s positive move didn’t eventuate, instead the TPLF prepared to go ahead with the war that started on the 24th of August 2022, he added. The terrorist group launched the offensive on eastern front, specifically Kobo and its surroundings.

“I think the resumption of this war was a shock to everybody and it was a shock to me. TPLF claimed the government had repositioned troops. But the government would have been aware that the TPLF was moving its troops as well preparing for that attack.”

The  other thing that also happened is that while TPLF was quite busy in the lead up to the war there was the attack by Al Shabab, out of Somalia and against Ethiopia, in which TPLF was perhaps involved in, the observer stated.

This is a clear manifestation of TPLF working with regional and international terrorist groups  that have alliance with global terror group like Al-Qaida.

According to the conflict observer, Al Shabab’s attacks in eastern Ethiopia also involved Shene group and others. However, it was an unsuccessful battle thwarted by Ethiopian forces.

He added that TPLF has also established formal alliance with the Gambella Liberation Front and Shene at home as well as beyond for another resurgence of violence against civilians in Oromia and the other regional states.

Thompson further pointed out that the terrorist TPLF is trying to exploit the alleged involvement of Eritrea in the war, but Eritrean troops were not involved in the actual fighting.   

Eritrean troops are in their defensive positions along their own borders to thwart the provocation attempts of TPLF intending to expand the conflict, he underlined.

Ethiopia has a capacity to manage its own affairs and never invited support, despite the TPLF allegation and its narrative supported by the so-called international media.

He insisted that it is the ineffective and attention-deficit international media that makes the international community not to understand the Ethiopian perspective of truth.

“I think the international community struggles to understand the Ethiopian perspective on this conflict, because the international perspective on this conflict is diametrically opposed. The international perspective considers the TPLF sort of freedom fighters who have been oppressed by the federal government.”

Explaining what the international community should grasp, Thomson noted that it needs to understand that the TPLF is  not a reliable negotiating partner.

“I think what we've seen over the course of the last two years makes it clear that the TPLF is not a reliable negotiating partner in any respect. It repeatedly refused to negotiate throughout the war and continues to do so.”

Instead the TPLF leaders have been using humanitarian aid as a sort of incentive and weapon against families who might refuse to provide children to fight in the war.

 “At this point we're talking about many  families who have already given up their elder children to the war and we don't know how many died, but it it's almost certainly in the tens of thousands,” he noted.

Recall also that the recent looting of the fuel intended for distribution of humanitarian assistance from WFP warehouses is an extension of the cruelty of TPLF to the people of Tigray and neighboring regions.

As pointed out by WFP Chief David Beasley, the terrorist group stole 570,000 liters designated for humanitarian aid distribution in Tigray region.