Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, seems to have hope for a peaceful end to the war in North Ethiopia. TPLF has been preparing for a new round of war
borkena
The effort to end the war in North Ethiopia through dialogue is slow but “marching forward,” the 85 years old African Union special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, said.
Mr Obassanjo was in Mekelle this week where he met with Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) chairman, Debretsion Gebremichael.
On Thursday, he travelled to Bale, South Ethiopia, along with Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, and former prime minister Hailemariam Desalgnge.
He was seen along with the Prime Minister in state-owned media coverage of the prime minister’s trip to Bale.
Mr. Obassanjo had been shuttling between Mekelle and Addis Ababa with the aim of bringing about a peaceful end to the war in North Ethiopia which is said to have killed several hundreds of thousands of people.
BBC Amharic cited him as saying that “There is change but it is slow. The situation now is better than the one that existed six months ago.”
He has elaborated on his position. “Now they [the Ethiopian government and TPLF] have made a humanitarian truce. This has to be elevated to a negotiated ceasefire. And that agreement has to transform into a cessation of hostilities. ”
Furthermore, he reportedly said “What we are doing and what we should be doing is to create trust [between warring parties]”
Also, he said, according to the source, that he would like to achieve two things from the negotiation process. Ensuring the delivery of aid and negotiated ceasefire.
Asked if he thinks that a peaceful solution would happen soon, he said ” I do not want to put a time frame for it.” However, he underscored that the African Union pays utmost attention to the war in Ethiopia.
On the other hand, the government of Ethiopia and Eritrea have said that the TPLF has been mobilising for another round of war.
Likewise, the Amhara region of Ethiopia said, last month, that the TPLF is preparing for war and ordered security forces in the region to be on standby.
It is to be recalled that TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael wrote an open letter to the UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, claiming that the peaceful option to end the conflict did not work and that the TPLF would have to resort to something else.
Earlier this week the TPLF was accusing Eritrea of shelling the border town of Sheraro but the Eritrean government did not remark on it.
But there were reports from local sources in Ethiopia that the TPLF attempted to attack Eritrea but lost battles with heavy casualties.
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TRUST is no more an option, Sir, after one party has bombarded schools, looted clinics, defecated in hotels, gang-raped women for 6 and 8 (with ethnic slur and insult), dismanted hardware and public installations, rampaged fields and bullet-killed milking cows. Can you trust such medieval idiot????
I remember one of the TPLF goons portrayed Mr. Obasanjo as a `chimp` and made disparaging remarks on the mediator (from translations).
Following this racial slur, I inquired about the prevalence of such racial views in the Tigray elites and a Tigrayan I know told me that the TPLF itself has its own categorization of Tigrayans. Those from Adwa are described as the best/superior and their dialect is promoted as the official one in the media and high administrative positions in Tigray. Then follow the Shire and Axum Tigrayans in the category. I was not supersized over the remarks after hearing from him this and more.
This is elderly statesman and man of peace deserves encouragement and ever success in his blessed effort. He and his divine mission will be and remain to be so in my daily prayers. This senseless conflict that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands and tens of thousands others physically and mentally injured along millions more displaced was triggered due to utter stupidity. The conflict and the reasons it was triggered should be measured just like any other war with what it has achieved. The answer is nothing. What did those upright people of Tigray gain? Nothing but deaths, rapes, displacement and wrenching hunger. They should quiz the leaders of the TPLF about it. There leaders who are ‘recovered’ deresaas of Marxism/Leninism brought deadly and destructing war to their doorsteps. Even now in light of relative truce they can’t even get an aspirin to ease down the throbbing headache that is bedeviling them day and night. It is reported that the former bustling hospital has shut down for lack of medicine and medical supplies. But it is reported that Debre’s military warehouses are stacked up with such supplies. Those upright citizens have lost their boys and girls to never see them again. This is what the war triggered by the leaders of the TPLF brought upon them.
On the other side, it seems that the regime is Addis/Finfine is doing a heck of a job in not being able to protect its citizens in so many parts of the rest of the country. My understanding of ‘ready to protect the sovereignty’ of the country also means protecting the safety of its citizens. That was why there was a landslide victory at the ballot in the last election. I just read news where its police manhandled a political prisoner. EHRC has protested the rampart imprisonment of citizens without due process. To my recollection such improprieties were part of the major factors that triggered major tsunami size popular uprisings that sent previous regimes to the doghouse. But it is still my personal conviction that I like to see the current regime to succeed sans senseless wars and blatant violation of the rights of the individual where no one shall be above the law of the land. I say that strongly believing that the opportunity that came for the country in 2018 is the last chance it has. It either has to shape up or it is oblivion that will make Yemen, Syria and Iraq look like a walk in a park. We will see the entire 120+ million citizens on the move. And that is not funny!!!!
I think peace can only prevail in Tigray and Ethiopia if only and only the people of Tigray abandon the fascists of the TPLF. They should end supplying the TPLF with cannon fodder. Tigary under fascism will remain a menace and therefore the peace efforts and the mediation by Mr. Obasanjo may not lead to an acceptable peace. It is not in the nature of the TPLF to go into negotiations for the sake of peace. Peace as long as the TPLF is fortified in Tigray is a wishful thinking.
People must watch and stop Abiy Ahmed the arrogant who thinks he is more powerful than the population of Ethiopia. He is plotting his usual sinister to kick Demeke Mekonen out and to replace him with the more hungry for power that eventually will kickout Abiy himself out of Arat Kilo the one and only one Jawar Mohammed the submissive servant of Arab countries.
Ethiopia is starving for new and fresh leader and political parties. OLF and OPDO, TPLF servants have sat in power for gruesome and misarable years. They only prospered and became billionaires while sending the whole countrymen and economy into misery, starvation, homelessness, internally displacements, targeted Amahara Genocide and ethnic cleancing, targeted looting and empoverihing Amhara people.