Debretsion Gebremichael, Chairman of Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) requested a green light from the regional council for a reformation of regional administration that will include other regional political actors in addition to the TPLF.
The chairman made the request at the 5th ordinary meeting of the 6th term of the Tigray Regional Council, according to Dimtsi Weyane, a TPLF-affiliated media.
Debretsion said, “our current situation forces us to use all the potential of Tigray as it has a very complicated case which necessitates careful and sensible management".
Ethiopian Satellite Television (ESAT), which claims to be an independent media outlet, reported on Jan 21 that “TPLF central command banned five members who are senior officials, making them accountable for the crisis resulting from the conflict”.
The TPLF senior officials alleged to be barred from party membership by ESAT’s report include the Chairman of the TPLF, Debretsion Gebremichael, and Getachew Reda, a member of the central committee, as well as three others.
ESAT’s statement was widely rebuked by many on social platforms as fabricated fake news.
Following these reports and circulating rumors, Getachew Reda tweeted, “There is a consensus centered on the importance of the safety and survival of the people of Tigray. However, no cabinet has been formed or reshuffled”.
Debretsion remarked in his report to the council regarding the peace deal that “Genocidal War has been taking place in collaboration with foreign forces intending to extinct the people of Tigray”.
He said the presence of non-Ethiopian forces will endanger the peace process and they have to evacuate the region in accordance with the Nairobi peace deal, and the disarmament of TPLF forces.
Since the outbreak of the conflict between the federal government of Ethiopia and TPLF in November 2000, the government established an interim government in Tigray to which were assigned two administrators before it was dismissed.
Mulu Nega served as the Tigray caretaker administration's chief executive officer from November 2020 until May 2021. Late in January 2021, Mulu submitted a letter of resignation saying the interim government lacked the authority to address “the misery of the people of Tigray who are starved to death and sexually abused by foreign soldiers”.
Then, the federal government disclosed in May 2021 that Mulu Nega would be replaced as the chairman of the interim government by Abraham Belay, who is currently the Minister of the Ministry of Defence.
In July 2021, it was reported that more than 100 people were claimed to be killed by TPLF and its supporters related to the Tigray interim administration due to their collaboration with and participation in the interim administration.
