Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed calls on the TDF to surrender

 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed encouraged Tigrayan Defense forces to surrender on Tuesday, saying that government forces were on the verge of triumph only a week after pledging to lead military operations at the front.

 

"Tigray's young are wilting like leaves. It is being governed by someone who does not have a clear vision or plan, despite the fact that it is defeated "In remarks broadcast on state television, EBC, Abiy Ahmed, the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stated.

 

"They should hand over to the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, special forces, militias, and the Ethiopian people now."

 

Tuesday's video was the most recent in a string of images that showed Abiy in uniform with soldiers in what seemed to be Afar's northeastern province.

 

In recent weeks, the area has seen intense combat as the Tigray defense force (TDF) attempts to capture control of a vital route that supplies Addis Ababa.

 

State media reported on Sunday that the army had taken control of the lowland Afar town of Chifra, and Abiy vowed on Tuesday that similar advances will be mirrored in the Amhara area to the west.

 

"The adversary has been vanquished. In one day, we achieved an unbelievable win with the eastern command... We shall now duplicate this win in the west "he stated

 

Abiy, a former military lieutenant-colonel, said last week that he would return to the battlefield after the TDF took control of Shewa Robit, a town roughly 220 kilometers (135 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa by road.

 

Fears of a rebel march on the capital have spurred the US, France, the UK, and other nations to warn their people to flee Ethiopia as soon as possible, despite Abiy's government's assertion that TPLF successes are exaggerated and the city is secure.

 

Spokesman of TPLF, Getachew Reda on Monday dismissed Abiy's deployment as a "circus" involving "farcical war games".

 

In November 2020, Abiy sent soldiers into the northernmost Tigray area to overthrow the TPLF, citing TPLF attacks on army bases as justification for the move.

 

According to UN estimates, the violence has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced over two million people, and forced hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions.

 

Diplomats led by Olusegun Obasanjo, the African Union's special envoy for the Horn of Africa, are trying to broker a truce, but little progress has been made so far.