News: Fed.,regional law enforcement forum says TPLF’s mission to destroy Ethiopia can’t be undone by military means alone, calls on public to join
By Addis Standard Staff
Addis Abeba, October 30/2021 – A statement released on October 29 after a daylong consultation in Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara regional state, by members of the national federal and regional states law enforcement forum said that “the TPLF’s mission to destroy the country [Ethiopia] cannot be undone and buried by formal military means alone,” and that it was “necessary to mobilize and make the entire people of Ethiopia to own the struggle for the very existence of the country.”
The forum, which included Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Demeke Mekonnen, as well as senior federal regional authorities including members of the security, held a daylong meeting in Bahir Dar on October 29 to discuss the current trajectory of the security situation in the country, according to state owned media outlets.
At the end of the meeting, the joint forum released a statement in which it accused the Tigray forces of working to disintegrate Ethiopia and inciting violence and suffering on the people of Amhara and Afar regional states where Tigrayan forces have launched military offensives starting mid July this year.
According to the statement within three weeks after the “law enforcement” began in November last year, the National Defense Forces, the Afar and Amhara Special Forces, joined with forces from the entire Ethiopian people, drove the TPLF out of its headquarters in Mekele and into the Tembien desert.
In this “law enforcement operation”, the statement said, the defense forces have also successfully fulfilled their mission of recovering weapons, freeing its members who were taken hostages, bringing to justice the main culprits, and undermining the criminal and military capabilities of the criminal group. Following this, the government undertook 100 billion birr worth reconstruction and humanitarian assistance to rebuild the region and help the people of Tigray affected by the crisis.
The federal government has declared a unilateral ceasefire and unconditionally withdrew ENDF forces from Tigray in order to prevent famine in Tigray due to interruptions in agricultural activities. However, the statement accused the TPLF of using the opportunity to organize and carry out its offensives. “Although the people of Tigray, especially the farmers, took advantage of the opportunity to carry out their works the TPLF did not want to show any sympathy for the people it claims to represent, the statement said.
“the strategy of our campaign should be to destroy the terrorist group’s power and its evil intentions once and for all.”
The statement further accused the TPLF of using the weaponry it accumulated while the desert, and forcing the people of Tigray from child to adults it “invaded the lands of Amhara and Afar.” It also said the TPLF changed its tactics during the law enforcement campaign, “giving the war a different look; creating a false narrative and hate propaganda; and forcefully recruiting men and women between the ages of 12 and 65, people with disabilities and pregnant women, and even priests and sheikhs and dispatching them to the Amhara and Afar regions.”
The statement added that “the strategy of our campaign should be to destroy the terrorist group’s power and its evil intentions once and for all. When we say to destroy its power, we meant by destroying the terrorist group’s weapons and its invading forces to eliminate its evil intention for the last time.”
“Since the war waged by the terrorist TPLF is an all out civil war, we call on the entire Ethiopian people to understand the scale and depth of the war and, as usual, join forces with the heroic defense forces and all regional security forces to defend the country.”
It cautions that currently Ethiopia is at a point when the youth, women, investors and scholars, religious leaders and all patriotic Ethiopians at home and abroad, should consult together and be united to defend the country collectively. The country is at a stage where its citizens should fight together and make history in order to protect the country from disintegration by its internal traitors who want to make the country’s citizens the cheapest and most disrespected citizens in the world. AS