
Ethiopia: Wolayta People Liberation Movement (WPLM) – Statement by the Wolayta People’s Liberation Movement on the Resumption of War in Tigray (27.08.2022)




Residents of Sekota city and passers by, a message from the Agew army to all our people. Our army has placed a historical guard for the people of Agew. The respected people of Agew Sekota warn you not to go out on unnecessary places this week. Our brave army has reached the point of defending fascist groups. Therefore, we urge the people to protect themselves.
With the arms of our hands

At all times, it is forbidden to direct attacks against civilians; indeed, to attack civilians intentionally while aware of their civilian status is a war crime .
Agaezi National Union (ANU) party strongly condemns the deadly air strike in Mekelle, the capital city of the Tigray Region, Ethiopia by the joint mission of Eritrean and Ethiopian forces. This air raid had hit a kindergarten in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, killing at least ten people, several children, and injuring others. Dr. Kibrom Gebreselassie, chief executive of Ayder hospital, said the bombing hit a children’s playground at Res Kids Paradise.
PP of Ethiopia’s Government Communication Service in a statement said the government will “take action targeting the military forces that are the source of the anti-peace sentiment of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front”. However, ANU has made the necessary investigations and ensured that the Prosperity party government is accountable for such barbaric and horrific air-bombardments against innocent civilians together with its terrorist one man absolute dictator government of Eritrea.
This is definitely part of the repeated war crimes because it fulfils the definition, a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostages, unnecessarily destroying civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and for any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings including genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter despite surrender, the conscription of children in the military and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity. This brutal and barbaric airstrike violates the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which was first adopted in 1949, based on parts of the 1907 Hague Convention IV.
Therefore, we, the Agaezian National Union Party urge all the international community, state and non-state actors, and human right defenders join us in condemning such barbaric and brutal air strikes targeting innocent civilians and making the PP Ethiopian and Sheabia Eritrean dictators and genociders held accountable.
Agaezi National Union (ANU) Party
26.08.2022

Today is the fourth day after the full-scale war started again in the Tigray region. There are now reports that the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF), Amhara allies (Amhara Regional Special Forces and Amhara Para-Military Group “Fano”) and Eritrean Defence Force (EDF). These has all encircled the region in advance to the latest conflict. While they are doing the same stick as in November 2020. Saying the Tigray Defence Force (TDF) and their forces breached the “humanitarian truce”. However, the ENDF Air-Force did bomb Tigrayan territories way before that and also station troops in the nearby region in advance of their new offensive towards the Tigray. Therefore, this is just like the 2020 “Law Enforcement Operation” and they are trying to use the same means this time as well.
However, the TDF is seemingly having a momentum and been able to get to Kobo in North Wollo, in Amhara region. Where the ENDF has retreated from. While there is reports of the attacks and advances in the Afar region. This is telling, because these are the same regions the TDF went into on their offensive during last year. When the TDF was on the way to block the roads from Djibouti entering Ethiopia. In such a way that it could control the fright and convoys of imports into the Republic, which it was never able to last year; but it was the end-game.
The second part was to establish itself outside of Tigray and make itself a route to Addis Ababa. To be able to logistically to takeover the capital and bring justice to the oppressors. However, that never happened either.
What has happened today is that both the Amhara and Afar Regional States has issued Press Release’s and I will only take a few small paragraphs from it. Then their discuss what they are actually saying.
Amhara Regional State says this: “The Amhara regional government has done important things in the past four years that will benefit the people of the region from the unity of Ethiopia. It is known that the terrorist group of TPLF, who understood this situation, is working with an objective from the beginning to hinder the people and government of Amhara from the opportunity to ensure their own development” (Amhara regional state, 27.08.2022).
It further states: “The TPLF terrorist group that hasn’t been stopped by this destruction and massacre has committed treason that will endanger the sovereignty of Ethiopia. The national defense force has attacked the northern command. More than this, Melkea’s land location and cultural and religious interaction with the people of Tigray, the invasion of the Amhara region, which has thousands of years of togetherness has caused a lot of human damage” (…) “The Amhara regional government’s desire to resolve all conflicts peacefully is strong. But because of the refusal of the terrorist group TPLF, the options for peace are closed, the regional government has forced the people to fulfill its responsibility of protecting them. Therefore, the terrorist group of TPLF is making necessary and reasonable preparations to counter the invasion” (Amhara regional state, 28.07.2022).
It is very interesting that the Amhara speaks of UNITY, when their forces and allies are the ones that has besieged the borders of Tigray. The ones that has Annexed the Western Tigray with other allies of the Tripartite Alliance. That’s the sort of work the Amhara has done. They have also participated in this war and invested in it. This is well known, the Fano is known for it’s acts and usage of force. The Ministry of Peace and the Commission for National Dialogue haven’t worked accordingly to it’s mission. It is just foolery to believe so and the naive trust that. This is just peddling propaganda and further vilifying the Tigray, which has become such a constant in the Republic.
The Afar region state is also very harsh and rightfully so, but this region has been very hard and had little to no help from the regional government. The Amhara is close allies and the Addis Ababa cherish their strength and commitment to the “cause”. However, the Afar is just the part of the nation that get all the stray-bullets and victims without any consideration. So, the Afar regional state is within it’s rights to feel violated. Because of it strategic importance and the reasons for why the Tigray Defence Force attacks it to hurt the Federal Government…
Afar regional state says: “The group has repeatedly opened for three rounds of war through Afar region and has massacred innocent women, children and elders without mercy, destroyed public institutions, religious institutions, and displaced a large number of innocent people from their homes to suffering, starvation, poverty and death. Since the terrorist TPLF, which has committed atrocities against innocent people, is not hindering the unity of the neighboring people of Afar and Tigray, the people and the government of Afar should see the terrorist group as a separate group, and the respected humanitarian aid that is needed to rescue the people of Tigray should pass through Afar without any preconditions. Rally organizations, humanitarian organizations and They have been working with international organizations” (Afar Regional State, 27.08.2022).
It further states: “Just like the terrorist TPLF has done on the fronts it has opened before, it has opened a war using a wave of people targeting innocent people. In Afar region, Fenti Resu zone, Yalo woreda, a heavy weapon was fired at innocent farmers and children have been killed and injured. The international community group is working to create a more mass outcry in Afar region and Amhara. So we should stand with humanity by condemning this inhuman and brutal act!” (Afar Regional State, 27.08.2022).
What is striking here is that too cries out when they are the victims. They are rightfully aware that a war has consequences for all parties. The sadness of war is that the innocent dies and the evil lives on. The leaders aren’t on the front-lines, but soldiers and militia members. The Amhara & Afar Regional Special Forces are on the front-lines defending the territories. The TDF are attacking now because they are besieged and has nowhere to go. They got no choice and war is the only solution after over 20 months of besieged territories and lack of basic necessities. It isn’t like the Afar or Amhara has had the borders open for the international community or the humanitarian assistance to come in, according to the needs of Tigray. It has only come with the bare minimum and not the total needs… that’s why before the end of the “humanitarian truce” there was reports of starvation, famine and deaths occurring as a lack of medicines, utilities and nutrition. Therefore, the crying out loud is nothing in compared to the devastation in Tigray region. However, everyone deserves food, shelter and health care, but that has been blocked for months on end by the partners of these regional states. So, they should know why the TDF is entering their territories now.
The TDF is acting in war and has their faults. Certainly, their armies and their brigades are unfortunately killing civilians. Nevertheless, the maximizing of it. The outcry and such seems fatiguing, in comparison to the planned efforts of arresting, detaining and killing of Tigrayan ethnic people across the board. Also, in comparison to the massacres that has occurred since November 2020 in the Tigray region. That’s why these Press Releases only shows the party line of the state.
The TDF has their actions and should be independently investigated for their misgivings. The same should all the parties of the Tripartite Alliance too. That’s why the calling of acts as terrorists are only to undermine and used as means of gaining sympathy against a opponent that is vilified and expelled from the political landscape. This happened for one reason – they didn’t accept the deal that Abiy offered them; when he launched the Prosperity Party out of the defunct political coalition EPRDF. That shouldn’t be forgotten here and the TPLF got isolated and burned as a consequence of it. Yes, the TPLF as the major party in the EPRDF has to answer for their crimes in office. Now, the Prosperity Party and their allies to answer for theirs. As Abiy and his kind has ushered in the era of the “Medemer Terror” and the latest happenings this year is a proof of that.
This will continue to escalate. The language will continue to be horrific and be harsh. There will be no mercy and no sort of middle-ground. No, it will only be pure testament to the battle-torn neighbours, brothers who turned on each other for more power.
Why also it’s troubling the usage of terrorists. Is that it’s hard to see the difference between the TDF and the Tripartite Alliance, if the contrast isn’t even worse in the last mentioned alliance. The Tripartite Alliance has chosen to starve, disconnect and besiege a region for months on end. It has chosen to target ethnic Tigrayan people and extra judicial kill them even. So, if that isn’t terror and genocidal, I don’t know. While the TDF might have blood on it’s hands… what was it supposed to do? Just die without trying to self-defence? Yes, I wish the TDF didn’t kill innocent civilians and got civilians caught in the fire of their offensives. However, that’s the tragic part about war and it comes close to home. It isn’t fought on outskirts and fields of nowhere, but closer to villages and strategic points in the terrain. Therefore, the ones who wasn’t able to flee or seek shelter elsewhere; sadly get caught in the middle of it. That has happened in Afar and Amhara, but also time and time again in Tigray. That’s the vicious nature of war and beast of conflict. This is why all ways to peace should be sought, but in regard to Abiy and PP; they never intended for it; they wanted to fool the world and at the same time prepare for another offensive. Peace.






