The lower house of the Ethiopian Parliament announced on Wednesday March 22 that it had removed the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a party of the rebel authorities in this northern region, from the list of terrorist entities. "The House (…) adopted the decision to withdraw the terrorist designation of the TPLF by a majority" of votes, the House of People's Representatives of Ethiopia announced on its Facebook account.
Long all-powerful, the TPLF, which de facto governed Ethiopia for three decades before being gradually marginalized with the arrival of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018, had been classified as terrorist by the Ethiopian authorities since May 6, 2021. An armed conflict then opposed him since November 2020 to the federal government, which ended with a peace agreement signed in November which provides in particular for the lifting of this terrorist qualification.
"During the debates (...), it emerged that removing the terrorist classification from the TPLF was essential to the implementation of the peace agreement reached in Pretoria between the federal government and the TPLF", noted the lower house. It does not specify the number of votes in favor of adoption, but notes that sixty-one deputies voted against and five abstained.
About 500,000 dead in the conflict, according to Washington
Quoted by the media Fana BC, close to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party, the boss of the majority deputies in Parliament, Tesfaye Beljige, explained that "to prevent a vicious circle in which one conflict responds to another, to end the politics of hate and evil, it is important to remove the TPLF from the terrorist[s] list.” In accordance with the peace agreement, the fighting has ceased, basic services (electricity, telecommunications, banks, etc.) have begun to be restored in Tigray and access to the region – almost cut off from the world for nearly two years – reopened. , including the humanitarian aid on which 90% of its six million inhabitants depend.
The lifting of the terrorist qualification of the party paves the way for the establishment of an interim administration in Tigray, led by the TPLF, as provided for in the Pretoria peace agreement. Abiy Ahmed sent the federal army to Tigray in November 2020, accusing the authorities in the region, who had contested his power for several months, of having attacked federal military bases there.
The balance sheet of the conflict in Tigray, marked by terrible abuses, is difficult to establish, but the United States estimates that it caused around 500,000 deaths. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for ending twenty years of war between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea, Mr. Abiy has gone since the conflict in Tigray, in the eyes of Washington, from a symbol of a new generation of modern African leaders to that of quasi-pariah.
The United States denounces war crimes
The conflict has deprived Ethiopia of part of the international aid – and the currencies that accompany it – on which it depends and Washington has notably excluded it from the benefits of AGOA, a mechanism which exempts certain African countries from taxes. for export to the United States. During a mid-March visit to Addis Ababa, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken linked the resumption of a broad economic partnership with Addis Ababa to "reconciliation and accountability" in the atrocities.
On Monday, he accused all belligerents of "war crimes", while pointing in particular to the responsibility of the Ethiopian federal army and its allies - Eritrean army and forces and militias of the neighboring region of Amhara - in " crimes against humanity,” without mentioning the TPLF in this regard. Addis Ababa and Asmara have denounced "selective" and "defamatory" accusations, with Ethiopia saying it will "continue to put in place all measures to hold accountable those responsible" for the atrocities of the conflict "and to ensure justice be returned to all the victims".
On Tuesday in Geneva, the UN commission responsible for investigating human rights violations in Tigray stressed that the peace agreement should not prevent the investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity. This "remains more important than ever to achieve lasting peace," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chairman of the investigative group that Addis Ababa opposes.
