Mereja.Forum

[Sadacha Macca]

ISSUE 1483 DATED 12/10/2018

''Image result for zalambessa border opening The chairman of the TPLF (Tigray People's Liberation Front) and president of Tigray National Regional State (TNRS), Debretsion Gebremichael, has received a helping hand from the Eritrean president Issayas Afeworki and the Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed Ali as he struggles to be re-elected as the head of his party. The two men have intervened to reassure TPLF leaders that the peace process will not be detrimental to their interests. In late September during the TPLF conference, Issayas Afeworki dispatched to Mekele his eldest son, Abraham Issayas Afeworki, who was recently promoted as his special advisor on issues including relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea (ION 1482). He was accompanied by the minister of mines and energy, General Sebhat Ephrem, who is an Issayas Afeworki loyalist. According to our sources, they discussed Eritrea's policy towards the TPLF and reassured the party's leaders.
For his part, Abiy Ahmed Ali has seized every opportunity to demonstrate that he is in no way hostile to Debretsion Gebremichael. On 3 October, he announced in his opening speech at the conference of the EPRDF (Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front) that Debretsion Gebremichael will be in charge of improving relations between the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments as well as between local populations. To this end, he will soon be travelling to Asmara for a talk with the Eritrean president.''