In war against the federal government, the tiger rebels have put the neighboring sacking province, pushing 336,000 people to displaced camps.
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Kalashnikov in a strap, Aliyu Muhammad Musa points the mountain which overlooks Konnaba, a town in the AFAR region, in northern Ethiopia. “Look, they are up there, near the summit,” said the militiaman with the face covered with dust by designating the positions of the soldiers of the Liberation Front of the Tiger people (TPLF). The latter occupied the region for three months. Konnaba was taken up by Afar fighters on April 22, but the front did not disappear.
The TPLF has been present in northern AFAR since the end of January. Until then, the civil war which has opposed the Tigrean insurgents since November 2020 to the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had confined himself to the regions of Tiger and Amhara. “At night, they stormed the city with mortars and other artillery pieces,” recalls Aliyu Muhammad Musa. Violence that quickly extended, pushing 336,000 people to displaced camps, according to the United Nations.
In an official press release published on April 26, the TPLF assured having “completely withdrawn” from the province. In reality, it still retains holds in four districts. “They have never admitted to having invaded us, now they say they have left completely … Again, they lie,” denounces Mohammed Idriss, the prefect of zone 2, one of the five administrative zones of the AFAR region.
“neither water, nor food”
Two weeks after the release of Konnaba, renowned for its gold deposits, none of the 50,000 inhabitants could return on the spot. The province has been bogged down: ghostly cities, ripped buildings, vandalized administrations, looted stores, ransacked houses … “It’s indescribable”, deplores Valerie Browning, an Australian at the head of the AFAR pastoral development association. According to her, the forces of the TPLF “brought the north of the region fifty years back”.
In Konnaba, the hospital still carries the marks of the occupant’s fury. The corridors and the operating room are congested with drugs, utensils and equipment. The electric cables inside the establishment were systematically cut. “They stole the machines and destroy what they could not take,” said Osman Nouru, head of the Konnaba district.
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