Tigray Peace Force Says Senior Commander John Medid Surrendered in Central Tigray

Zegabi.com
News and Articles

Maj. Gen. Yohannes Woldegiorgis, who led the Tigray forces’ Southern Front and is widely known as John Medid, surrendered to the Ethiopian National Defense Force and its partner, the Tigray Peace Force, in Central Tigray on Monday, a Tigray Peace Force commander and two sources close to the Ethiopian army told BBC Tigrinya.

In the Amhara region, the war between the federal government in Addis Ababa and Fano forces has spread across South Gondar since Saturday, residents told DW, as Zegabi reported. The army chief, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, said on Sunday that the TPLF had opened the current war on Sept. 23 on the North Wollo, Wag and Afar fronts on behalf of what he called the “Tsimdo,” the alliance of seven armed and political groups that includes the TPLF, the Amhara Fano National Movement and the Oromo Liberation Army, as Zegabi reported. The war that brought the general down began on Sept. 23 and has been fought well beyond Tigray. Federal troops and the Tigray Peace Force now hold most of Tigray, including Mekelle, and the authorities in Addis Ababa have named a caretaker administration to run the region for six months. TPLF leaders say they are still fighting a mobile war in several areas.

The sources told the BBC that the general was surrounded on Monday in a place called Simret, in Rama woreda of Tigray’s Central Zone near the Eritrean border, together with his guards and seven commanders said to hold the rank of colonel, and one of them said he was taken to the town of Adwa soon afterward. Brig. Gen. Gebregziabher Beyene, who heads security and peace in the federally appointed Tigray caretaker administration and commands the Tigray Peace Force, confirmed to the BBC that the general had surrendered and said he had spoken with him by telephone. Gebregziabher called John Medid a fellow fighter, a comrade and his former boss, and said, “I am very happy that he survived.” He also said there had been fighting before the surrender.

A senior figure in the Tigray Defense Forces who asked the BBC not to name him gave a different account. He said John Medid had been replaced at his front and ordered to report to the central command, but stayed instead around Adet, the village in Central Tigray where he was born, with his guards and a small force. Fighters of the Tigray forces’ Army 60 fought to clear a road for him to reach the central command, the source said, but the general refused to travel it, saying it was not safe, and was taken “without fighting.” The source went further and suggested he “may have negotiated in advance,” then “surrendered when the shooting started.” The BBC said it could not confirm that claim, or either side’s account of whether there was fighting at the time, and that neither the Ethiopian federal government nor the TPLF had issued an official statement.

DW Amharic reported on Tuesday that the general “surrendered yesterday” to the national army and the Tigray Peace Force after federal forces surrounded him in Simret, and that 25 of his aides, ranking from major to colonel, were also taken, according to a Tigray Peace Force official who asked not to be named, as DW’s Yohannes Gebregziabher reported on the broadcaster’s northern Ethiopia live blog. On Monday, Wazema Radio reported that the Tigray Peace Force had confirmed the general was in the hands of government forces but had not said whether he was captured in battle, surrendered or was found in hiding, or when and where. Wazema also said residents told it that government forces and TPLF fighters fought in and around the town of Chila in Central Tigray from Sunday until noon on Monday, with heavy weapons and drones, and that the TPLF said in a statement that a drone strike in the area killed seven young men who were digging for gold by hand.

The BBC named two other senior officers it said were taken with him, Col. Hagos Gebregziabher, known as Zemecha, and the head of the Southern Front’s finance office. According to the BBC’s sources, the Southern Front that John Medid led was made up of the 24th, 26th, 22nd, 44th and 43rd armies, based before the war at Alamata, Samre, Mekelle, Adi Gudem and Mekoni, and after the fighting in southern Tigray he handed it over to Brig. Gen. Abraha Tesfay, known as Dinkul. Before he joined the Tigray forces he was a senior commander in the federal army, and he later became one of the officers credited with rebuilding the Tigray forces after their early losses in the 2020 to 2022 war, BBC Amharic reported. When the TPLF split, he sided with the party’s chairman, Debretsion Gebremichael, against the interim administration of Getachew Reda, the BBC said, while DW reported that he had also held a different view from Debretsion’s group and argued against a “Tsimdo,” or alliance, with Eritrea.

DW recalled that he is best known in Tigray for a speech in which he said a generation “must be prepared for sacrifice” for “the next 50 years, 100 years,” words that Tigrayan politicians, and Tigrayan mothers above all, criticized as cruel.

On X, the news was argued over in Tigrigna, Amharic and Arabic. Abrha_M (@Abrha_MG) wrote in Tigrigna, “Thank you John Medid. There is no need to belittle the price you paid for Tigray’s national struggle since you were a child. In struggle there is sacrifice, falling, winning, being captured and surrendering,” and posted a photo he said showed the general “leading his command in Wegel Tena, Amhara 2021.” An account posting as “Eritrea to 🇪🇷s” (@meha65796) called it “bright news of victory” in Tigrigna and wrote that the general, “known for his cruel speech ‘one generation must be prepared for sacrifice!’,” came under the control of the ENDF and the Tigray Peace Force in fighting at Chila, in Simret tabia, together with his staff and guards and with Col. Hagos, the Southern Front’s head of operations. Mesfin (@princeMesfin) looked at a photo of the general beside men in army uniform and wrote in Amharic, “Don’t they look like old friends who lost touch, not men who fought each other?” and asked, “How many young men have died for nothing to keep the balance of power of these jokers?” Nur Abda (@NurAbda), who describes himself as the head of a center for strategic studies and regional integration initiatives in Ethiopia, wrote in Arabic that the general led the Southern Front that attacked the Kobo front on Sept. 23 “with the aim of advancing quickly toward the capital, Addis Ababa,” and that “it is still unclear whether he surrendered to the federal army, was found hiding or was arrested on the battlefield.” Tinsae Mulatu (@TinsaeMON), whose profile says he is from Tigray, wrote in English on Monday night that “no independently verified evidence” confirmed the surrender and that “a photograph is not proof of surrender.”

Sources