Tigray Youth’s Arm Struggle Has Commenced Against TPLF

[By Teum Mezgebo]

The Tigray leadership has never learnt from its countless mistakes. No one can understand why the failed TPLF leadership wants to remain in power but is impotent to maintain peace and security in Tigray when the leadership is claiming to have the most powerful force, namely the TDF, on its side, sitting idly and doing nothing to protect the people of Tigray.

Tigray is being humiliated by the inept, visionless, and corrupt leadership in the eyes of the world for violent crimes, humanitarian aid theft and diversion. The TPLF has signed the Pretoria Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA), which is exposing the people to extinction with the systematic genocide still in action by the regimes of Ethiopia and Eritrea and their allies, the Amhara Forces.

Amnesty reported on September 4, 2023, that Eritrean Defence Forces committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, extra-judicially executed civilians and sexually enslaved women for months after the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA). Besides, the Eritrean regime is forcing the people of Irob to change their identity to become Eritreans.

People are suffering, dying, being mugged, raped, and being murdered in broad daylight in towns and cities, particularly in Mekele, on a daily basis. TDF veterans are mistreated and neglected. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are forgotten and languishing in camps with no food or medical care. They survive on house-to-house begging. In 2023, Dr Debretsion promised the IDPs on camera that they would return to their homes very soon. That promise has never been fulfilled, and the IDPs still remain in the muddy shelters.

ዶ/ር ደብረፅዮን ገብረሚካኤል: ካብ ተመዛበቲ ዝመፅፁስ  ካብ ካሊእ ዝመፁስ ቅድሚ ኩሉ ውድብና ኢና ክነድሕን ንደሊ

They are not only the IDPs who are suffering; the people of Tigray in the occupied territories, liberated villages, towns, and cities (i.e., Tembien, Shire, Tselemti, Irob, Seharti, Mechoni, Adi Gudom, Wukro, Adigrat, Edaga Hamus, and etc.) have also experienced gross human rights violations, murder, rape, and kidnapping at the hands of the TPLF splinter faction led by Dr Debretsion and its rogue TDF generals.

TPLF/Rogue generals committed human rights abuses against civilians

Surprisingly, the TPLF is silent on violent crimes, food aid diversion, and human rights abuses by the TPLF cadres under their control. Instead, the TPLF is intimidating to silence the people’s voice, cover up or dilute justice for the victims of violent crimes, who are demanding reforms to the TPLF’s repressive political system. Remaining silent is not an option for the Tigray youth.

ሌ/ጀነራል ታደሰ ወረደ: “እዚ ነገር ብሓይሊ እዩ ዝምለስ ዝበሉ ናይ ዕጥቂ ቃልሲ ዝጀመሩ ኣለዉ። ዉሑዳት እዮም ዝብሉ ኣለዉ። ግን ብኸይዲ ብዙሓት ክኾኑ ይኽእሉ እዮም።”

Tegadalay Shewit Bitew, member of Tigray Independent Party (TIP) is calling for arm struggle to remove the repressive, inept, visionless, and corrupt TPLF leadership that denied Tigray genocide and wants to make alliances with the genocidal regime of Shaebia to stay in power forever. Tigray youth should join the struggle to bring about liberty, freedom, democracy and good governance in Tigray. This requires courage and resilience to renew Tigray’s democratic political system. The newly formed Tigray Peace Force (TPF) is ready to oust the repressive regime of the TPLF from Tigray and determine to rebuild a genuine democracy.

Tigray Peace Force (TPF) preparing to remove the TPLF from power

Evidently, there is zero chance for good governance in Tigray under TPLF rule. The people of Tigray must make the uncompromising choice of survival over keeping the treacherous, inept and dysfunctional TPLF leadership.

Credit Horizon Free Media: Dr Debretsion Gebremichael denying Tigray Genocide

Conversely, Abiy Ahmed is playing his card with his devious treachery and lies; he is patiently waiting for the people of Tigray to be wiped out without firing a bullet or for the eruption of a violent revolt to implode against the TPLF. On the other hand, Abiy is using the CoHA as another weapon of war to slowly kill the people of Tigray by inducing starvation, infectious diseases, and malnutrition to totally subdue Tigray. The Tigray leadership is unable to see the ruthlessness of Abiy Ahmed’s changing tactics to prolong the suffering of the people by executing the communist Mao strategy of “draining the sea to kill the fish”.

The TPLF has betrayed the people of Tigray by abdicating its oath to the genocidaire Abiy Ahmed. The TPLF leadership did not listen to the concerned diaspora about the peace agreement and went ahead alone to decide the fate of Tigray. The people of Tigray trusted the TPLF, believing it would defend them through thick and thin, but the TPLF undermined the trust of the people by stating it was elected illegally and handed over the rights of its people to the genocidal regime of the Abiy government. To this effect, the people of Tigray continue to suffer excruciatingly at the hands of Amhara and Eritrean forces while the TPLF and TIRA ideally watch from a distance, undermining and accusing each other. To add insult to injury, Getachew Reda said, “We will not fight to regain the occupied Tigray territories.” Getachew seemed to have made up his mind about giving up western Tigray to the Amhara expansionists, while the TPLF splinter faction led by Dr Debretsion remains silent about Zelambessa, Badme, Adiabo, Rama, and Irob and blessed the occupation by the genocidal regime of Eritrea.

We, all Tegaru, must understand the TPLF’s main weakness, which is its inability to form a united front with opposition parties in the best interests of the Tigrayan people. The TPLF leadership’s obsession with power at the time of the Genocidal War is beyond belief. We already lost up to 1 million people, over 120,000 women and young girls raped, over 2.2 million people displaced internally and over 70,000 people have fled to Sudan in this genocidal war, and many people are still perishing daily due to starvation, displacement, and killings since the Pretoria peace agreement.

The final nail in the coffin for the TPLF may be on the horizon, as the leadership lacks coherent strategy and is embroiled in a power struggle rather than being united with opposition parties to save the people of Tigray. The Ethiopian government, Eritrean forces, TPLF cadres, and Tigray Interim Administration officials were involved in food aid theft and diversion, aiding the enemies’ strategy to halt humanitarian aid, resulting in hunger, malnutrition, and the deaths of children, women, and the elderly.

Unless we, the Tegaru, take the ultimate decision to save our people, no one will save the Tigrayan people. We have seen that the statements of great powers, “We are concerned” and “We are gravely concerned”, have not saved the people of Tigray. The outcomes will not be the worst for the people of Tigray if the TPLF is removed from power, as it is the primary obstacle to the people of Tigray’s survival, peace and security. Once the TPLF is out of the picture in Tigray’s politics, it will be a new beginning for freedom, liberty, genuine democracy, and good governance for Tigray as a country. The loss of TPLF should not be seen as a loss for Tigray. It should be seen as the resurrection of Tigray to its former glory of the Aksumite era. We have already witnessed the great assets of TDF patriotism beyond imagination.

Tigray is not poor, and it is rich in mineral resources. The people of Tigray are hard-working, and they can develop Tigray very well, but our people need freedom, democracy and good governance to achieve meaningful economic developments. With TDF on the side of the people, Tigray will define its pride as a free and great country.

We, the Tegaru, must struggle to restore our Aksumite glory, which defines us as who we are. We are patriotic and resilient fighters who uphold our freedom and liberty from foreign invaders. Nevertheless, we are not good fighters against our own inept and corrupt TPLF leadership, which cracks open the door for our enemies to exploit our weaknesses and use them to divide us. Personal interests and our political allegiance to the TPLF seem to rule us easily and make us sympathetic to normalising its corrupt and repressive political ideology. We must move away from becoming slaves to the most rigid TPLF’s communist political system, which already collapsed in 1989, and embrace liberal democracy, freedom, liberty, equality, and good governance. We should become farsighted and visionary and work for the benefits and interests of the Tigrayan people above anything else. We can do it, but we cannot fully realise our interests in liberty, democracy, good governance, and self-determination with the TPLF at the helm of power. We must remove TPLF from power. Tigray will not see the light at the end of the tunnel if the TPLF remains in power. Tegaru must remember the past 33 years of TPLF’s repressive and corrupt administration.

The diaspora and Tigray elites must wake up to demand justice and accountability for the people of Tigray again, as they have done against the genocidal regimes of Ethiopian and Eritrean, and their allied Amhara forces, by leaving our personal interests and political views to the side. The TPLF maladministration in Tigray is becoming a matter of life or death for the people of Tigray. The Tegaru elites must challenge the TPLF leadership openly for its failure of accountability, moral responsibility, and repressive political ideology, which is needed to be fundamentally changed with progressive democracy and good governance. Criticising the humanitarian donors but remaining silent on the TPLF’s maladministration, human rights abuses, food aid theft, and diversion is basically wrong. Taking food from the hungry people’s mouths for personal use by TPLF cadres is the worst criminal act ever committed against the people of Tigray.

The people of Tigray must recognise that the TPLF leadership will not change. The TPLF will carry on its rigid and repressive communist political ideology, leading Tigray to total extermination. Tegaru must understand that the TPLF has no strategy to lead Tigray out of this genocidal war. The TPLF is now totally handicapped, with zero political influence. If the diaspora can’t see the fault lines of the TPLF, the people of Tigray’s hope for survival will be nil. Unless the diaspora stands with the people of Tigray by rejecting the inept, immoral, and corrupt TPLF leadership, many Tegaru will perish, emigrate, or abandon Tigray for safe-haven countries. The weak may face slow suffering from starvation, infectious diseases, and gross human rights abuses at the hands of the genocidaires.

For the diaspora, there is no point in crying out after the situation escalates beyond redemption. We all will be responsible for the suffering of the Tigrayan people if we enable, support, or choose to remain silent while the TPLF leadership is idly watching the people die of hunger, be displaced and massacred, and have women and young girls raped by Amhara and Eritrean forces in the occupied Tigray territories.

We have already learnt that the TPLF leadership is an obstacle to Tigray’s progress economically, technologically, politically, and socially. Tigray is losing its political influence completely, and it is in the hands of the genocidal Abiy government’s political sphere. Recognising the utter incompetence of the TPLF leadership, Tigray elites must unite to devise a strategy and form a new visionary leadership that can lead the people of Tigray out of this genocidal war.

Hence, the TPLF regime change is the only way out for the people of Tigray to save the Tigrayan race from extermination.