ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Tuesday urged Tigrayan rebels to surrender, saying government forces were nearing victory just one week after he vowed to lead military operations at the front.
“The youth of Tigray is perishing like leaves. Knowing it is defeated, it is being led by one who does not have a clear vision or plan,” Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, said in comments aired on state media.
“It should surrender today to the Ethiopian National Defence Force, to the special forces, to the militias and to the people.”
Tuesday’s footage was the latest in a series of clips showing Abiy, in uniform with soldiers, in what appeared to be the northeastern region of Afar.
The area has been the site of fierce fighting in recent weeks as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group tries to seize control of a critical highway that supplies the capital Addis Ababa.
On Sunday state media said the army controlled the lowland Afar town of Chifra, and Abiy said Tuesday such gains would be replicated to the west, in Amhara region.
“The enemy has been defeated. We scored an unthinkable victory with the eastern command in one day… Now in the west we will repeat this victory,” he said.
The announcement last week that Abiy, a former lieutenant-colonel in the military, would head to the battlefield came after the TPLF claimed to control Shewa Robit, a town just 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa by road.
Fears of a rebel march on the capital have prompted the United States, France, the United Kingdom and other countries to urge their citizens to leave Ethiopia as soon as possible, though Abiy’s government says TPLF gains are overstated and the city is secure.
A TPLF spokesman on Monday dismissed Abiy’s deployment as a “circus” involving “farcical war games”.
War broke out between the two sides in November 2020, with Abiy sending troops into the northernmost Tigray region to topple the TPLF — a move he said came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps.
The fighting has killed thousands, displaced more than two million and driven hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions, according to UN estimates.
Diplomats led by Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa, are trying to broker a ceasefire, though there has been little evident progress so far.
“Ethiopian premier urges TPLF to surrender as frontlines collapse into Tigray region”
Not Abiye Ahmed I guess, The vermins/parasites/viruses will be bombed back to Yemen and Saudi Arabia with the land the vermins/parasites/viruses out of our Gambella region, Djibouti (the US army, their French legions and Djibouti), cloned so-called so-called North Sudan, Port Sudan, Suez Canal will be be cloned by ‘Me’. There will be no so-called evil juus (so-called israelis) attack dogs, Bantuse, they are vermins.parasites/viruses are not going Poland or New York. They are in the are going to in the *museums*.
There is going to be second *Auschwitz/holocaust*. We have us the low lives, to go to hell in peace, before we put our hands on them. They follows us 24/7, Peru in America. The low lives think, we are their equals, Japanese are Peru, can we live side by side Japanese people here in South Sudan. That is not going to happen even in million years.
Rebecca Nyandeng, a prostitute, who thought, she is anyone. She was taken Japan to by her handlers, allegedly to go and represent South Sudan athletes. Prior to that cheap and dirty intrigues, South Sudanese low lives from Kakuma refugee camp were taken to go and run, in Brazil, Japan, and their their low life, was just kicked on the feet, by a Kenyan athlete.
Kenya is not a country. Here in our Nile valleys and plains, follow us. Look for a place to hide>>>