TPLF Once Again Crying Wolf to Cover up Its Fresh Attacks on Civilians: Foreign Affairs Ministry
The terrorist TPLF is once again crying wolf to cover up its fresh attacks on civilians, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press statement.
The Minister stated in its statement issued today that the TPLF has been crying wolf in the past week, calling on the international community to save it from the ‘’planned” government attack against it.
“However, it was the TPLF that has launched wide-scale unwarranted attacks against innocent civilians,” the statement indicated.
It further stated that setting aside all the empty rhetoric for its calls for negotiations, the TPLF has continued to prove its utter disregard for peace in Ethiopia.
The Unilateral Humanitarian Ceasefire declared by the Ethiopian Government on 28 June 2020 could not be reciprocated by the group, the statement pointed out adding that the TPLF has failed to appreciate the importance of peace to civilians and farmers who were yearning for relief to engage with their farming activities.
The terrorist group has replicated its failure to safeguard the wellbeing of the people of Tigray through unabated attacks against the people of Amhara and Afar.
Reports of extrajudicial killings and damage to properties in occupied areas have reached unprecedented levels, Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed in its statement.
The number of displaced people who need humanitarian assistance in the occupied areas has also dramatically increased lately, it added.
“The TPLF has been crying wolf in the past week, calling on the international community to save it from the ‘’planned” government attack against it. However, it was the TPLF that has launched wide-scale unwarranted attacks against innocent civilians,” the statement pointed out.
Realizing that it could not choke the Djibouti-Addis route, TPLF has resorted to targeting civilians in neighboring regions out of desperation, according to the statement.
“The Government of Ethiopia would like to request the US and its partners to stop their unbalanced treatment of the conflict in Ethiopia with their oversized sympathy and attention to the TPLF,” the statement stated.
The Full Press Statement Follows
Press Statement: The TPLF is once again crying wolf to cover up its fresh attacks on civilians
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Setting aside all the empty rhetoric for its calls for negotiations, the TPLF has continued to prove its utter disregard for peace in Ethiopia. The Unilateral Humanitarian Ceasefire declared by the Ethiopian Government on 28 June 2020 could not be reciprocated by the group. The TPLF has failed to appreciate the importance of peace to civilians and farmers who were yearning for relief to engage with their farming activities.
The terrorist group has replicated its failure to safeguard the wellbeing of the people of Tigray through unabated attacks against the people of Amhara and Afar. Reports of extrajudicial killings and damage to properties in occupied areas have reached unprecedented levels. The number of displaced people who need humanitarian assistance in the occupied areas has also dramatically increased lately.
The TPLF has been crying wolf in the past week, calling on the international community to save it from the ‘’planned” government attack against it. However, it was the TPLF that has launched wide-scale unwarranted attacks against innocent civilians.
Realizing that it could not choke the Djibouti-Addis route, TPLF has resorted to targeting civilians in neighboring regions out of desperation. The TPLF has recently launched fresh attacks on Amhara and Afar regions plundering property and starving children, mothers, and the elderly to death. They have indiscriminately targeted and shelled civilian villages namely Chifra and Wuchale lately and killed more than 30 civilians at Wuchale alone. The terrorist enterprise has continued using human waves in hundreds of thousands of young and the elderly, as well as unarmed civilians, swarming cities and villages to loot cattle and ready-to-be-harvested crops and destroy the livelihood of neighboring regions. Due to such atrocities, it is no wonder that the flow of humanitarian aid is severely curtailed.
The Government of Ethiopia is deeply dismayed by the reticence of the international community to condemn the perpetuated atrocities of the TPLF. Adding salt to our injury is the seemingly pro-TPLF resolution of the European Parliament and the utterly biased statement issued following the US and its partners’ high-level ministerial meeting over the situation in Northern Ethiopia.
The US and its partners put the lifting of restrictions on humanitarian access to civilians in Tigray as their top priority condemning the Government of Ethiopia for obstruction of aid. They have demanded the Government of Ethiopia to immediately re-establish communications, banking, and other vital services within Tigray and fully restore transport corridors and air linkages to Tigray. Putting all the blame on a single party in the conflict, while whitewashing the wrongs of the other, is not only biased but also unacceptable by any standard.
As the Government of Ethiopia has repeatedly said, the diversion of humanitarian resources by the TPLF for its military purposes has sputtered the delivery of humanitarian aid in the region. The US and its partners should not have taken the TPLF’s incessant killings of several civilians who had worked to re-establish services in the Tigray region lightly. It would be challenging for the Government of Ethiopia to force these workers to operate in Tigray devoid of security for their lives and amid the continued impunity of the TPLF.
It is absurd to expect unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid to the Tigray region while the TPLF is actively attacking neighboring areas and provoking the people to obstruct the process. The Government of Ethiopia would like to request the US and its partners not to be swayed by the crying wolf TPLF and downplay the suffering of people in north Wollo, Gonder, Wag Hemera of Amhara, and Afar regions.
The Government of Ethiopia would like to request the US and its partners to stop their unbalanced treatment of the conflict in Ethiopia with their oversized sympathy and attention to the TPLF. They should also stop downplaying the suffering of people in areas outside of Tigray at the hands of the TPLF. The TPLF should not be allowed to wave the flag of peace when it senses defeat on military fronts and dupes the international community for its commitment to unconditional negotiation.
On the government side, our commitment to peace has been consistent since the war on impunity was started on 04 November 2020. The Government of Ethiopia also remains committed to forge an all-inclusive national dialogue. The government, therefore, calls upon the international community to support Ethiopia’s overtures for peace.
Source: Ethiopia News Agency