![Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaking to Ethiopian state-affiliated media at the front lines in Afar region. [Photo via Facebook]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/42221ED5-B58A-441D-A9DA-B5BDEAE0AD91.jpeg?quality=89&ssl=1)
Yet how the government scored its wins and what they mean for an eventual outcome in the year-old war remain points of fierce debate as fighting enters a new, uncertain phase.
Just a month ago, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group appeared to be on the offensive, claiming to have captured Dessie and Kombolcha, towns on a key highway headed towards the capital Addis Ababa.
They reportedly reached as far as Shewa Robit, around 220 kilometres (135 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa by road.
But after Abiy announced last week he would lead operations in the field, the government announced a string of victories and the rebels acknowledged making adjustments to their strategy.
State media has responded with triumphalist wall-to-wall coverage.
“The enemy is destroyed, disintegrated,” the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Abiy as saying Thursday.
There’s little doubt the government can claim to have the “upper hand” in specific areas, said Awet Weldemichael, a Horn of Africa security expert at Queen’s University in Canada.
“Only time will tell if these can be translated into [the] upper hand in the war,” he said.
– A surprise shift –
The war in northern Ethiopia broke out in November 2020 when Abiy sent troops to topple the TPLF — a move he said came in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.
Though Abiy, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner, promised a quick victory, by late June the TPLF had retaken most of Tigray, and it soon launched offensives into neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions.
The rebels’ march towards Addis sparked international panic, with a host of embassies urging their citizens to leave the country as soon as possible.
All the while, though, the exact nature of the TPLF advance was in dispute.
“I don’t know whether we should call it an advance,” one Western security official told AFP in mid-November.
“There’s not a huge column of tanks and armoured vehicles driving down the road towards Addis. It’s more complex than that. There are foot soldiers going into the mountains, they shoot and surround certain areas” but do not seem to fully control cities and towns, the official said.
The TPLF also never explicitly said it wanted to enter Addis Ababa, instead simply declining to rule out such a move.
The latest battlefield shifts unfolded swiftly.
The government first claimed towns in Afar, near a critical highway bringing goods to Addis Ababa, then on Wednesday it declared victory in Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site that fell to the TPLF in August.
On Friday state media announced that towns on the road heading north towards Dessie and Kombolcha had been “liberated”.
The news could be a sign that government forces, as well as many thousands of new recruits who have enlisted in recent months, have more fight than they’ve gotten credit for.
“I was quite surprised by the latest counteroffensive by the government,” said Mehdi Labzae, a sociologist who studies land issues and mobilisation in Ethiopia.
“I have seen all the people who were mobilised… but the thing is I thought they were not trained and I thought they would just be destroyed.”
– The path ahead –
The African Union is trying to broker a ceasefire to avert further bloodshed, though there has been little progress so far.
The TPLF insists it will have the advantage in whatever fighting is to come.
“In battle, it’s known there will be adjustments and limited retreat as well as significant moves forward,” TPLF military boss Tadesse Worede said in an interview that aired Friday.
“We decided that to reduce problems and vulnerabilities in some areas we had reached, to leave some of those places voluntarily.”
For Labzae, such statements recall the government’s announcement that it was withdrawing from most of Tigray in late June — a claim that elided military setbacks even as TPLF fighters celebrated in the streets of the regional capital Mekele.
“They were so close [to Addis]. Why would they turn back now?” Labzae said of the TPLF.
“It means there was something worrying them or something that did not look good for them.”
One possibility, said Awet of Queen’s University, is that the government’s superior air power has turned the tide — at least for now.
“Drones are claimed to have played a decisive role in active combat, the full extent of which we are yet to find out,” he said.
“But so far, it appears like they have helped halt Tigrayan counterattacks and advances.”
“Ethiopia’s war in uncertain phase after PM Abiy’s advance against TPLF”
The vermins/parasites/viruses have made a living over the backs of other people and their countries their new normal.And yes, we have some low lives here in South Sudan who consider vermins/parasites/viruses our people and prostitutes our people. Since when? They always attach them to our country and our people since 1950th to date. The vermins/parasites.viruses even run Italy, their former colonizer, with Eritreans, Somalian and junkies of Africa, and then go and lie through evil teeth, that they are South Sudanese people running away from violent. Their piece of trash Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean president, Mr. Isaias Afwerki were brought here to South Sudan https://newbusinessethiopia.com/politics/eritrean-president-ethiopian-pm-visit-south-sudan/
https://www.africanews.com/2019/03/04/ethiopia-eritrea-leaders-visit-south-sudan-for-high-level-talks//
And repeat the same piece of rubbish that AFRICA UNITY and REGION INTEGRATION bullshits, which had been peddle about by foreign criminals and secret societies’ low lives of former president of South Africa, Mr.Thabo Mbeki, former president of Tanzania, Mr. Jakaya Kikwete (what a damn name?!), current president of Rwanda, Mr. Paul Kagame, current Kenyan-drunk-like piece of sewer, Mr. Uhuru Kenyattam his arch rival, Mr. Raila Odinga, who even brags that he is a CIA operative in Africa, former Abesh (so-called ethiopian) prostitute, prime minister, Mr. Hailemariam Desalegn, former Niegrian president, Mr. Olusagan Obasanjo, Mr. Malik Agar, Yasir Arman, their ‘puppets/stooges, traitors, secret societies and thieves here in South Sudan of Mr. Riek Machar, Lam Akol, Aduok Nyabe, Pagan Amum, Majak Agoot, Thomas Cirillo, Rebecca Nyandeng and her son, Uyai Deng Aja; who have sold themselves and their souls to the devils and they thought, South Sudan and the South Sudanese people are also for sale.
Other piece of evils and secret societies of fomrer US president, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama, a lowly educated piece of trash who was even brought to Adis Ababa and South Africa by his secret societies or coterie handlers and came and lectured us that if we “we don’t reach that target” by his handlers. While he and US state’s department, his evil juus (so-called israelis) attack dogs and his then secretary of states, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, then US ambassador to South Sudan, Ms. Susan Paige, then United Nation mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) head, Ms. Hilde Johnson prostitute, then head UNSC, former South Korea slittyeyed piece of shit, Mr. Ban Ki Moon. former evil juus (so-called israel) attack criminal, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and his bunch of Zionist low low lives. Who even called our country and our people, their damn US and evil juus (so-called israel) attack dogs their ‘national security interests’.
They follow South Sudanese people everywhere around the 24/7 who are way too well ahead of them. *That from Jerusalem to Tigris Rivers, to Euphrates Rivers and right up to our Nilotic plain and valleys, their evil juus (so-called israel) attack dog civilization would expanse to our Nilotic plains and valleys. And that their civilization would be ‘ushered in by their so-called most powerful sovereigns’ of the US, the UK and France. Yeah?!! Good luck the vermins/parasites/viruses, dreaming or trying have never been a crime.
Right after South Sudan independence in 2011. There were some South Sudanese low lives who went to that damned evil juus (so-called israel) attack dog. They were rounded up in 2012, deported and dumped in Juba. They were called names that South Sudanese people are “the ones who darken the Jewish souls and Identity’ Oh really?
The most galling on this planet earth is when some low lives who are ones, just try to be anyone attach themselves over the people who are not their equals. The evil juus (so-called isrraelis) attack dogs are not going to reach *Poland and New York*
The reasons as to why the European didn’t WIPED THE VERMINS/PARASITES/VIRUSES OUT OF WAS UP TO THEM. WE are going to settle our scores with them, their gulf Arab terrorism exporters once and for all. Some West African Bantuses, Darfuris, Erieteerean, Abeshas (so-called ethiopian) prostitutes, Somalian and other piece of shits who went to that evil juus (so-called israel) are always rounded up given $3000 taken to departed to Rwanda and told to come to South Sudan, their so-called terra Nullus (a country without people). I don’t know what do the evil juus (so-called israelis) attack dogs pay Rwanda?.
For all I care, Mr. Kagame is a secret society of lowly educated of trash. Most the criminals they send to Rwanda just go to Libya and Europe again.
South Sudan and the South Sudanese people are the coveted by these vermins/parasites/viruses. But there are some limits. Fellows, we are the masters of longshot warfares, we have never never ever been colonized by any piece of trash on this planet earth. Mr. Paul Kagame and some their Bantuses piece of trashes have let their balls carried them away, But they are going to be blitz pretty badly with masters. South Sudan is not their Eastern Democratic republic Congo (DRC former (Zaire) or Belgium Congo, the low often invaded at whim every 10 years or (50) and play COLD-WAR-LIKE-FOOTBALL or CHESS GAME. Fellows watch space. We don’t consider Bantuses anything. Where Mr. Pope Francis, former Argentina piece of scrounger, where is queen Elizabeth of the devil infested island of England? Where are their gulf Arab paymasters so-called Kings, where is Mr. Joe Bidden. We have thorough and thorough informed our enemies and our South Sudanese lowly informed piece of trashes. To never ever again dare *bring anything that is connected to cloned so-called Arabs of North Sudan, Abeshas (so-called ethiopian) prostitutes, some of Bantuses, their evil juus (so-called attack dogs), their gulf Arab states financiers and terrorists, evil white Americans, white English people, their UN, their sleazy NGOs, UNMISS of Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalese, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nigerians, Rwanda and other piece of shits into our country and over people again like in 2005 *on the guise or pretext* of the so-called *UN AGENDA 21, UN NEW WORLD ORDER GOVERNMENT, GOVERNMENT WITHOUT BORDERS, AFRICAN UNITY AND REGIONAL INTEGRATION, HUMANITARIAN AID, DONATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS and PEACEKEEPING nonsense* reasons, pure HATRED and RACISM. *Roman Catholics, society of Jesuits, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Voodoos, Muslims, Hindus, Sharmans, Irish and devils into our country and over our people in name rebuilding South Sudan just like in 2005.
We are the ancient Egyptians. At the end of Nile our Nile Estuary (Our Nile Delta). Europeans claim claim it as theirs. That is how the vermins/parasites.viruses always take other people things and brag Western Civilization. We are going to find out who will has the last laugh.
Read this links: https://www.alamoministries.com/content/english/Antichrist/jesuitoath.html
My detractors called me a conspiracy theorist, but I am an insider. I had been bullied, threaten with death, bullied, stalk 24/7, by the evils our South Sudanese often called their allies or uncles. My family, my friends and other acquaintances are followed 24/7.
Read the Da Vinci Code. Low lives, secret societies are very dangerous. But if you don’t have privacy, then you are not human being anymore, but a mere commodity, that can just be bought and sold at whim. And this is why in some other cultures, public officials are better paid. Because, they are on public glare. However, they are just human beings like everybody else. Bully an ordinary citizen like the what many tabloid or paparazzi do in Hollywood, in the US and and other countries where low lives think, they know better than others, he/she will sue you to ‘death or out of business if your lucky’.
I am not a Journalist, but I always try to volunteer myself to challenge the evils who have attached themselves to our country and over our people like leeches or ticks. What writing here * they are waiting for it it like hungry hyenas, then go and rummage on it, and then write tabloids in Kenya, daily nation, The Star, The EastAfrica Standard, Times, Rwandan Times (My arse), Ugandan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Vision.
This online tabloids used by our enemies this Sudans, Sudan Tribune, Eye Radio, Tamazuj, New Arabs, in Gulf Arab states, Times of Israel evil juus (so-called Israelis) attack dogs, New York Times, Guardian and Mail in South Africa, the Soweto and other pieces of shits, who think, their so-called *artificial intelligence (AI) is anything. Even countries like Kenya think, they are superior in ‘technology than South Sudan and the South Sudanese people. Oh yeah, who do the low lives think, they really are?
The vermins/parasites/viruses and their masters have been challenged. There will be no Bantuses, evil juus (so-called israelis) attack dogs, in Kenya, all the *Kenols/Kobils*, all the Bantuses low lives out Nanyuki, Laikipia, Nyeri and their evil British army base, claiming to be training for battle in tropics. We warned Kenya. Here in Jonglei. and Upper Nile, the evils who were arming Mr. Riek Machar in 2013–2016, where the British in Central Kenya. We even shot down Russian Helicopter. They were asked who they were, they didn’t want to hear anything. We shot them down here in Jonglei, Pibor. The US, he US, and their piece of trash went cry and babies, that South Sudan and has breached UN humanitarian always, My arse. Follow South Sudan and the South Sudanese people if you low lives really think, you are anyone to our country and over our people.
Then bring it on. We are waiting for you. Don’t belong in South Sudan, I had explained a number of times. People who are way too well ahead, When I explain these facts, they will go and rollover and claimed it to be theirs.
Muonyjaangs/Jaangs/Jenges/Jongoth/Dinkas/of the Sudan and Egypt, We are very superior RACISTS and REVENGEFUL. The Nile is not own lives, it owners, us, the Muonyjaangs/Jaangs/Jenges/Jongoth/Dinkas.>>>