The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has started this Tuesday the process of handing over heavy weapons the group has to the Ethiopian Army.
TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda announced the delivery of the weapons «as part of the commitment to implement the Pretoria agreement».
«We hope and expect that this will go a long way in accelerating the full implementation of the agreement,» Reda said via his profile on the social networking site Twitter.
The TPLF assured in late November that the delivery of the weaponry was linked to the withdrawal of Ethiopia’s allied troops from the Tigray region, days after the government claimed that this withdrawal was dependent on the disarmament process.
The conflict in Tigray erupted in November 2020 following a TPLF attack on the army’s main base in Mekelle, after which the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered an offensive against the group following months of political and administrative tensions, including the TPLF’s refusal to recognize an election postponement and its decision to hold regional elections outside Addis Ababa.
The TPLF accuses Abiy of whipping up tensions since coming to power in April 2018, when he became the first Oromo to accede to office. Until then, the TPLF had been the dominant force within Ethiopia’s ruling coalition since 1991, the ethnically-supported Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The group opposed Abiy’s reforms, which it saw as an attempt to undermine its influence.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
