Mereja.Forum

[Zmeselo]

WORLD NEWS
Ethiopia says disputed western Tigray will be settled in a referendum and displaced people returned

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

https://apnews.com/article/ethiopia-tig ... 702c7f0936

November 6, 2023

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia’s federal government says the future of contested land in its northern Tigray region will be settled by a referendum, and hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced people will be returned. Monday’s announcement came one year after a cease-fire ended a devastating civil war there.

The disputed status of western Tigray, a patch of fertile land bordering Sudan, was a key flashpoint in the two-year conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, and the federal government.

Western Tigray belongs to Tigray under Ethiopia’s constitution. But it was occupied by forces from neighboring Amhara province, which claims the area as its own. Hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans were forcibly expelled, prompting accusations of ethnic cleansing.

In a statement to mark the anniversary of the cease-fire, the government said the displaced people would be returned and the federal military would assume responsibility for local security.

A referendum will then be held to reach

a final determination on the fate of these areas,

the statement said. It did not say when the referendum would be.

Ethiopia’s constitution says territorial disputes between regions can be settled based on

the wishes of peoples concerned

when officials fail to reach an agreement.

The TPLF in a statement published Friday said the cease-fire had not been fully implemented because large numbers of people are still displaced.

In late July, fighting erupted in Amhara over a plan to absorb regional paramilitary groups into the federal military and police, with local militias known as Fano briefly seizing control of some of the region’s towns.

Suggestions that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed might return western Tigray and other disputed land to Tigray helped fuel the violence, which has turned into a rumbling insurgency in the countryside.

At least 183 people were killed in the first month of the Amhara conflict, according to the United Nations. Ethiopia’s state-appointed human rights commission said last week that dozens of civilians had been killed in airstrikes and extrajudicial killings.

In one incident documented by the rights body, security forces killed 12 civilians, including several religious students, on Oct. 10 while searching a house in the Amhara town of Adet.

Ethiopia’s government has rejected the accusations and said it has restored law and order to the region.




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[Zmeselo]

The statement confirms that Abiy’s regime cannot be trusted and the Pretoria Agreement was a ploy to hoodwink the Ethiopian people. Now the regime admits, contrary to the agreement, the TPLF still maintains its weapons, runs the provisional administration, and the Federal Government abdicated its responsibilities to provide security in the region. Instead, the regime’s statement contemplates dangerous actions not foreseen in the agreement on the so-called contested areas. Abiy’s regime and the TPLF signed the Pretoria Agreement to maintain the status quo by saving the TPLF and the ethnic/apartheid political system and constitution it imposed on Ethiopia. The claim by the regime and some external actors that the Pretoria Agreement silenced the guns is utterly false and self- serving. The guns are louder now in Ethiopia than they were 2 years ago, as Abiy continues his genocidal war on the Amhara people and in other parts of the country.

Berhanemeskel Nega: @berhanenega

This statement justify that the TPLF hasn't yet Disarmed, which is in contrary to what has been told.

'

The disarmament process requires an inventory of heavy armaments handed over and a full handing over of small and light arms, which still remain rampant in the region.

'

@iyoba4u



Proof, Eritrea & Fanos were right about the terror junta's-disarmament-lie.

[Za-Ilmaknun]

"Western Tigray belongs to Tigray under Ethiopia’s constitution. But it was occupied by forces from neighboring Amhara province, which claims the area as its own."

This says it all. Let's see if what the crazy psychopath says comes to fruitation and expose once again the tigrai people to mass extinction. Western tigre is Shire and anyone who tries to cross Tekeze in to WolQayit will be tunred to dust!!! The terror monger TPLF occupied WelQayit and Raya territories by force befor even the so called constitution came to be.

[Right]

Abiye Ahmed Ali is no longer the leader of Ethiopia. He knows it that is why he is trying create total havoc.

Let him try to bring ENDF to Welkayit. 60% of his the demoralized ENDF is in Gojjam sacrificing soldiers for Abiye Ahmed’s ambitions.

It is over.