One of the armed factions in Ethiopia’s Tigray has rejected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call requesting the people to propose a leader who will be an interim president of the region for the next one year.
In a message Ahmed requested the people of Tigray to participate in the nomination of a new president, confirming the official departure of Getachew Reda as the interim president of the Tigray regional state.
In a statement issued late Wednesday one faction of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led by Debretsion Gebremichael argued that the PM’s move violates the Pretoria Cessation of Hostility Agreement (CoHA).
The faction said the Ethiopian government has persistently sought to unilaterally impose new terms on the CoHA, engaging in acts of sabotage that undermine peace and progress.
“The people of Tigray should have had an elected government by now. However, this has not materialized due to the Ethiopian government’s deliberate efforts to manufacture political crises in Tigray,” it said.
According to the statement, the Ethiopian government is escalating its activities in direct contravention of the CoHA which obliges all parties to refrain from any direct or indirect hostile actions targeting the other party.
“Rather than focusing on rehabilitating the people of Tigray, who have endured a genocidal war, the Ethiopian government has resorted to malicious acts such as blocking essential commodities like fuel from entering Tigray and halting life-saving activities,” said the faction, asserting that it rejects the call to nominate interim president for the Tigray region.
MG/as/APA