Tigray: Ethiopian Prime Minister says Eritrea will withdraw troops from the border zone

Tigray: Ethiopian Prime Minister says Eritrea will withdraw troops from the border zone

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“The Eritrean government has agreed to withdraw its forces from the border with Ethiopia. The Ethiopian National Defense Force will take charge of border areas with immediate effectiveness,” said Abiy in a statement. statement on Twitter after meeting with the president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki, in the capital of Eritrea, Asmara.

The Ethiopian National Defense Force will take charge of border areas immediately, said Abiy.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed since November, when Abiy launched a major military operation against Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), by sending national troops and fighters from the Amhara region in Ethiopia.

CNN had previously reported that soldiers from neighboring Eritrea crossed Tigray territory and carried out extrajudicial executions, massacres, sexual violence and other human rights abuses.

Abiy said on Friday that the TPLF had provoked Eritrean’s military involvement by launching rockets at its capital, Asmara, and thus leading the Eritrean government to “maintain its national security”.

CNN was unable to independently verify the complaint. The TPLF denied starting the conflict and accused Ethiopia and its Eritrean allies of genocide and other crimes against humanity.
Separate investigations by CNN and Amnesty International in February revealed evidence of massacres perpetrated by Eritrean forces in the village of Dengelat and in the city of Axum.
And last week, CNN and the UK’s Channel 4 News published investigations into the rape used by troops from Ethiopia and Eritrea as a weapon of war against women in Tigray.
View of the bus station in Wukro, Tigray, on March 1, 2021.
On Tuesday, just days after the reports were released, Abiy said his government would hold any soldier held responsible for rape or looting in Tigray accountable – recognizing that Eritrean troops were fighting alongside Ethiopian forces after months of denial.

“Reports indicate that atrocities have been committed in the Tigray region,” Abiy wrote in a post on his Twitter account. “Regardless of the TPLF’s exaggerated propaganda, any soldier responsible for raping our women and plundering communities in the region will be held responsible, as their mission is to protect.”

Abiy received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for resolving a long-standing conflict with neighboring Eritrea, ending two decades of hostilities. Critics say Abiy’s much-touted peace deal with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki set the stage for both sides to wage war against TPLF – their mutual enemy.

On Monday, the Eritrean embassy of the United Kingdom and Ireland responded to CNN’s repeated requests for comment by denying accusations of wrongdoing by Eritrean soldiers and denying that Eritrean troops were in Ethiopia.

Gianluca Mezzofiore, Katie Polglase, Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis and Alex Platt of CNN contributed to this report

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