The rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) says it will continue fighting until their terms for a ceasefire are met.
Chief of the rebel force Gen Tsadkan Gebretensae told the BBC Monday that TPLF aims to force the federal government to lift a blockade in the region and agree to a political solution to the crisis.
The government denies there is a blockade and has ruled out talks.
It has been well over a month since the Ethiopian government unilaterally declared a humanitarian ceasefire, consequently withdrawing the Ethiopian Defense Force from much of the Tigray region.
The stated objective of the ceasefire was to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid in the region and give farmers a chance to seize the rainy season to plant crops.
Neither of them happened. There are reports that farmers who are supposed to undertake their farming activity are rather fighting the TPLF’s war against the Ethiopian Defense Force, Afar and Amahra regional forces. Humanitarian aid was not delivered too as the preferred access to the region via Afar turned out to be a war zone.
Initially, the TPLF ridiculed the unilateral ceasefire, saying it was “a joke.” It was a “joke”, for TPLF, because TPLF was playing hero at the time with the claim that the Ethiopian Defense Force was routed in the region and that the ceasefire was meant for buying time.
MG/abj/APA