TPLF saboteurs derailing aid delivery into Ethiopia’s Tigray

ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia’s Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has reportedly deployed saboteurs in several parts of the Afar region to undermine aid delivery into the war-ravaged northern region of Tigray, according to a senior security officer from Afar.

According to the officer who requested not to be named for sensitivity of the issue, TPLF has deployed around 150 soldiers in certain areas between Afar and the Tigray region in order to attack aid convoys so that the Afar regional state’s government is blamed by the international community of lacking will to open routes.

“What is happening now is that the TPLF has deployed around 150 members of its military forces in certain areas between Afar and Tigray and most of them are inside areas that are controlled by the federal forces and regional forces and this is one of the reasons that we felt undermine aid delivery,” he said.

“Now, they are coming to Afar, and I think also Amhara region, so that they carry out attacks on humanitarian convoy so that the federal government is blamed by the international community because the attacks would be in areas controlled by the federal forces and the regional forces,” he added.

On Thursday afternoon, the Ethiopian government declared a unilateral humanitarian truce that aims at allowing aid into the Tigray region with immediate effects. The Tigray rebels also declared their own cessation of hostilities.

But three days since the declaration of the truce, Tigray rebel spokesman Getachew Reda claims that no aid delivery has been made since the adversaries declared a cessation of hostilities.

“It has been two days since Ethiopian Authorities announced what they call a ‘humanitarian truce in Tigray’ to, among other things, enable aid to get into Tigray. Nothing has arrived to Tigray as of yet,” he claimed.

“Although we hope the authorities will break with tradition and honour their promises, we have not seen any sign to believe that that is so. We will continue to steer clear of cynicism and maintain our faint faith that the authorities will honour their words,” he added.

He then said that “the [Government of Tigray] is always ready to play a pro-active and constructive role to help aid get to people in desperate need not just in Tigray but in neighboring regions as well.”