Zegabi

The Ethiopian federal government is preparing to set up a new interim administration in Tigray and wants to hold regional elections within a few months, according to Abraham Belay, a former president of the Tigray Interim Administration. He spoke a day after government forces and allied fighters took control of the regional capital, Mekelle.

Monument in Mekelle commemorating the war against the Derg, 12 March 2006, Bamse / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). [file photo]

Abraham, who now heads the Ethiopian Nuclear Energy Commission, said in an interview with the state-affiliated Fana Media Corporation that the Ethiopian National Defense Force was carrying out operations to clear what he called illegal armed forces from the region. Once those operations are finished, he said, new administrative structures will be organized from the kebele level upward with direct participation from local communities. The Ethiopian News Agency reported that he described the preparations as moving quickly so the transition can be completed and an election held within months.

“We are working to establish a new administrative structure that will enable the people of Tigray to govern themselves,” Abraham said, in remarks carried by Al Jazeera.

He did not give a date for the election or say who would lead the new administration. In the same interview he accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front of using propaganda and the poverty of the population to keep political control of Tigray, and of blocking the return of people displaced by the 2020 to 2022 war so it could keep the issue as a political card.

The TPLF said in a statement late on Saturday that it had “temporarily moved out of Mekelle” and that its regional government would “operate from somewhere else.” Al Jazeera reported that the group said the decision was meant to prevent more destruction in the city and suggested its forces would keep fighting from other positions. TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael said on Thursday that the fighting was a “continuation of the previous war,” according to the Associated Press.

A pro-government militia source, a humanitarian worker and a Mekelle resident told Reuters on Sunday that government forces and the allied Tigray Peace Force were in control of the city. A local journalist told AFP that federal troops were patrolling Mekelle and guarding key institutions on Sunday, and that communications had come back for the first time in more than a week.

Jalale Getachew Birru, an Ethiopia analyst with the conflict monitor ACLED, told the AP that once federal troops control Mekelle, Abiy Ahmed is very likely to leave security in the region to the Tigray Peace Force, which is made up of former members of the Tigray Defense Forces, the TPLF’s armed wing.

People in the city described a tense few days. Filmon Equar Hailu, a business owner in Mekelle, told the AP that civilians looted the TPLF administration office, the regional police headquarters and some shops as TPLF-allied fighters left in small groups over about three days, some of them on foot. He said he heard celebratory gunfire overnight into Sunday morning. Goitom, a 37-year-old resident, told Al Jazeera there was a stretch of time when nobody seemed to be in charge and thieves went into some government offices. “On Friday night, we were hearing gunfire but did not know what was happening,” he said. “It feels like we are back to square one.”

The question of who governs Tigray has been open for months. The Pretoria agreement, signed in November 2022 with the African Union’s help, ended the last war but left the status of disputed territories, the return of displaced people and the disarmament of Tigrayan forces unresolved. In July the TPLF said the agreement had effectively collapsed, a claim the authorities in Addis Ababa rejected, and AFP reported that the TPLF pushed out a government-appointed administration in Tigray earlier this year.

Abraham called on all Ethiopians to support the federal effort to finish the transition so that the people of Tigray can fully take part in national development, ENA reported.

Sources:

• Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), “New Interim Administration to Be Established in Tigray Region”
• Fana Media Corporation, Abraham Belay interview on IDP returns
• Fana Media Corporation, Abraham Belay interview on TPLF control
• Al Jazeera, “Ethiopia’s forces retake Mekelle amid renewed Tigray fighting”
• Al Jazeera, “Ethiopian government forces seize Tigray capital Mekelle as TPLF withdraws”
• Associated Press via Newser, “Ethiopia’s government retakes Mekelle after opposition fighters withdraw from Tigray capital”
• AFP via Africanews, “Ethiopia’s federal forces retake Tigrayan capital Mekelle”