The rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have intensified their preparedness for a military offensive in Ethiopia’s Afar region, displacing over 300,000 residents from the region, according to the federal government.
The federal government say it has not responded to the situation despite regional forces and their allies facing what it calls a mechanized military offensive by the TPLF.
On Wednesday, the House of People’s Representative (Parliament) dispatched the Foreign Relation & Peace Standing Committee to the region for what appears to be a fact finding mission.
Dima Negawo, a former Oromo Liberation Front official and now a parliamentarian, led the mission to Afar, and visited displaced people currently residing in temporary shelters in Afdera.
Afar regional authorities, including Awol Arba himself, have confirmed that TPLF has been shelling areas where there are no military targets, at least in three of the five districts that came under the military attack.
The parliamentary committee learned firsthand from the people displaced from the area, and from elders that regional forces and militia were not in a position to respond to the TPLF attack as it was firing heavy artillery.
The committee is told that government support is needed – something that should have been understood without any fact finding mission.
MG/as/APA