Ethiopia won’t delist TPLF’s terrorist designation – foreign ministry

ADDIS ABABA – The government of Ethiopia has stated that it does not intent to delist the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led by Debretsion Gebremichael as a terrorist organization and also ruled out possibility of talks between the federal government and the rebel group.

This is in contrary to claims by Debretsion earlier this month that his group and the government was in talk with the government setting out ways to begin a formal talk hoped to lead to a ceasefire agreement which would be a possible opportunity to end the more-than 14-months conflict.

Speaking to reporters in Addis Ababa during a bi-weekly press conference on Thursday, spokesman of the Ethiopian ministry of foreign affairs, Amb. Dina Mufti said the government will not delist the TPLF from its terrorist designation and indicated that the government is not ready to negotiate with a terrorist designate.

“The planned national dialogue is not a negotiation and the Ethiopian government does not have any agenda to negotiate with a designated terrorist group, including TPLF,” Ambassador Dina said, reiterating the Ethiopian government’s readiness to achieve peace in the country.

The remarks by the Ethiopian foreign ministry spokesman resonate with a statement issued by the ruling Prosperity Party (PP) of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in which the party said the planned inclusive national dialogue does not mean negotiating with groups that were “designated as terrorist by the parliament.”

Early this month, Debretsion said his group was in informal talks with the government of Ethiopia. He said they were trying to reach a deal on terms of a possible ceasefire talks which he said was possible because he has “seen progress in recent days”.