Troops from a “neighboring country” destroyed factories and universities during the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray state, an official from the region’s interim administration told state media on Thursday in a clear reference to Eritrea.
Tigray has been the scene of the battle since early November 2020, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced military operations against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), accusing them of attacking federal army camps.
He declared victory after pro-government forces seized the regional capital of Mekele in late November and appointed an interim government to take over the leadership of the TPLF. However, there is still fighting.
The presence of soldiers from neighboring Eritrea has been extensively documented, but repeatedly denied by Addis Ababa and Asmara.
Alula Habteab, who heads the construction, road and transportation department of the interim administration, appeared to be openly criticizing soldiers from Eritrea and the neighboring Amhara region for their actions during the conflict.
“There were armies from a neighboring country and a neighboring region that wanted to take advantage of the war goal of law enforcement,” he told state media.
“These troops have done more damage than the war itself.”
He said troops from across the border had destroyed large factories in Tigray, such as the pharmaceutical factories Almeda Textiles and Adigrat, and two large universities in Adigrat and Axum.
“Universities and factories that Tigray has produced over the past 30 years have all been destroyed.”
In a rare rebuke to the national army by the interim government, he also accused the Ethiopian national defense force of “seizing numerous properties” that belonged to the Tigray government.
Tigray is one of 10 semi-autonomous states largely separated along ethnic lines in Ethiopia.
The former leadership, the TPLF, dominated the federal government for decades before Abiy came to power in 2018 and has been accused of sidelining them.
Under TPLF-dominated rule, Ethiopia fought a brutal border war with Eritrea in 1998-2000, followed by a long diplomatic stalemate.
Abiy won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 largely for triggering rapprochement with Eritrea, whose President Isaias Afwerki and the TPLF remain bitter enemies.
There is also a history of enmity between Tigray and the neighboring Amhara region, over land and political disputes, and it is widely documented that militiamen from Amhara fought alongside federal forces in Tigray.
str-fb / ri