TPLF’s Attack on Northern Command Most Treasonous Act in Ethiopia’s Entire History: US-Based Journalist

Addis Ababa, November 2, 2022 (ENA)  The attack carried out against the Northern Command of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) based in Tigray on the 4th of November 2020 was the most treasonous act in the entire history of Ethiopia, the Tigrayan-Ethiopian independent journalist Hermela Argawi said.

On the 4^th of November 2020, TPLF attacked the Northern Command of ENDF that had been stationed in Tigray for almost two decades. The group killed a number of military officers while asleep and looted weapons, including rockets they used to strike Bahir Dar and Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea.  

Tomorrow, Ethiopians are commemorating the second anniversary of this tragic incident under the motto: “We shall never forget!”, in recognition of the sacrifices being paid by the ENDF to safeguard the nation.  

Th independent US-based journalist, Hermela Argawi told ENA that the attack was designed to completely paralyze all of Ethiopia with the final goal of taking over Addis Ababa and forcing a regime change or forcing the TPLF to be a part of the new government in the way they decided.

The journalist cited one of the ring leaders of TPLF, Getachew Reda, as saying “we were told to get a coalition of people to go to Addis Ababa”, similar to the 1991 incident except this one is 2022 or 2021 at the time when he said it.    

“It is a very different scenario. You cannot just march into Addis. It is not 1991. The TPLF ruled the country for 27 years and it had that time to win the hearts and minds of Ethiopians and to make peace with its neighbor Eritrea,” Hermela elaborated.   

She also mentioned about the efforts made by the new government of Ethiopia and several segments of the society in the country to address the then tension without going to war.

However, the efforts ended up without success due to TPLF’s desire to regain political power.   

“There were so many efforts to try to bring the TPLF leadership into the new Prosperity Party. The pre-war efforts … that elders and people with notable names and business people went to Tigray to solve the then tension between the TPLF and the new government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to solve that tension without going to war and peacefully, not violently. All of these efforts did not produce any results. And in my understanding, that was due to TPLF’s insistence on essentially running the country.  Negotiations were not going to work out then and eventually they went to the 4^th of November 2020.”

According to the journalist, several actors, including some senate members who often spend their time demonizing the Ethiopian government, admit that the TPLF started the war by attacking the  national army based in Tigray region.

Hermela believes that the TPLF whose track record is bad has still been bragging to realizing its intention of dismantling Ethiopia if it is not going to rule the country.

Fortunately, “The Ethiopian government and the Ethiopian people are a lot more educated on what the tools of the TPLF are in terms of the way they speak to the international community... They (the TPLF) have said if they are not going to rule Ethiopia they are going to destroy it, they were bragging about it. They brag about the prospect of Ethiopia to disintegrating it as some call it Balkanizing.”

There are still a lot of such efforts, particularly among the so-called think-tanks here in the US and other parts of the world including Europe, that are trying to demonize the Ethiopian people and government.

“Such efforts are still there. I believe that there are  a lot of efforts along the way and now we see it less intense in the main stream media outlets; but still it is more intense among the so-called think-tanks here in the US and other parts of the world, including Europe that are trying to demonize the Ethiopian people and government that they have voted in as genociders  as it is going into Tigray for a simple purpose of eliminating the Tigray people, which again has proven to be false.”

The independent journalist also stressed the need to try to balance out and correct the narrative that has been festering and infesting the international community’s space, the social media space and the media outlet spaces. “I think it’s time to start getting this right.”

Hermela underlined that the November 4^th attack is going to live in the minds and hearts of Ethiopians as well as Eritreans as a huge treason committed not only just on the Ethiopian government and the soldiers but the Ethiopian people as a whole.