The fight against TPLF is not over — General Abebaw Tadesse, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Ethiopian Army

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army General Abebaw Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA, JANUARY 20, 2020 — In an interview with Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army General Abebaw Tadesse said the fight against the terrorist Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) is not over and that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) is preparing itself for the next phase after it completed the first phase in removing the terrorists from Amhara and Afar regions.

The General also confirmed that TPLF has not desisted from provoking neighboring regions. Since mid December, TPLF had been shelling Abala, capital of Kilbatti Rasu (Zone 2), Afar region, preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid into Tigray, killing and displacing thousands from Abala.

General Abebaw Tadesse also said that the Ethiopian army is now measured by its merit and capability to fulfill its obligation than based on ethnicity.

He said previously the ENDF was organized based on ethnicity and the army has paid for this. 

The ENDF was largely, 80%, led by Generals who were Tigrayans despite the fact that they were a minority ethnic group in Ethiopia. When the TPLF attacked the ENDF Northern Command on November 2020, most of these Generals had defected leaving a leadership vacuum within the ENDF. It was amid the conflict that Ethiopia had to reorganize the ENDF leadership including assigning new leaders for Army Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff positions.

"When the ENDF first fought with the TPLF it was outnumbered and it was ill-equipped. The TPLF had 250,000 soldiers while the ENDF was only 44,000." said the General Abebaw Tadesse.

But now, explained the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army, the ENDF is being built according to merit and  based on being Ethiopian values.

The General also said that if the Ethiopian army had majority members from the Oromo, Amhara or the Southern Nations it is completely natural since these are the dominant ethnic populations.

On his January 16 speech, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had also said he was deeply saddened by those who wanted to criticize the ENDF for being biased towards some ethnic groups. He said the ENDF has paid huge sacrifices more than any army in Ethiopian history. This is because, according to him, the TPLF was the worst threat Ethiopia faced even in comparison to fascist Italy which attempted to take over Ethiopia in 1936. "When the fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia, it said it wanted to rule Ethiopia not destroy it. But the TPLF wanted to destroy Ethiopia.", said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.