The leader of the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has written to the United Nations calling for restraint from Ethiopian federal forces following a series of setbacks on the battlefield.
In the letter to UN Secretary General, António Guterres, the TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael wrote: “We have heard the unanimous international call for us to withdraw from neighboring regions. The government of Ethiopia has made the same call…We trust that our bold act of withdrawal will be a decisive opening for peace”.
Under Ethiopian federal laws, regional states do not have a mandate to establish foreign relations or communicate with an international body.
However, the TPLF leader said he was writing to the scribe of the world body “on behalf of the people of Tigray and the National Regional Government of Tigray”.
His letter comes on the back of a string of heavy military defeats inflicted by a re-energised Ethiopian federal army under the command of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who was at the front line in November leading his troops against the TPLF insurgents.
TPLF Spokesperson Getachew Reda on Sunday said TPLF forces had beat a strategic retreat from the Amhara and Afar regions ahead of launching another offensive against federal troops.
However, the federal government said the TPLF’s retreat was as a result of suffering devastating losses in these regions in the past three weeks.
In a span of less than two weeks, TPLF forces were forced to leave city after city in the western, eastern and Wollo fronts.
As Ethiopian federal forces advanced, city after city fell before them including Shewarobit, Debre Sina, Ataye, Kemissie, Kombolcham Batie, Dessie, Haik, Wuchale, Wurgehsa, Mersa, Woldia and Kobo which were all under TPLF control in the beginning of November.
The latest TPLF retreat came this week after its troops were routed in the battle for Gashena and the world heritage city of Lalibela.
According to sources, joint Ethiopian forces control supply lines to the Tigray region, leaving the TPLF insurgents with little option to continue fighting or retreat.
Aside from reports of widespread looting and destruction in TPLF-held areas, the insurgents are also accused of carrying out massacres of civilians during its occupation of the Amhara and Afar regions over the last five months.
International human rights organisations have confirmed that a series of mass graves linked to the massacres have been uncovered in these regions in the last few weeks.
MG/as/APA