Once Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front is facing a backlash from former supporters in the northern territory as its latest offensive against federal forces falters.<\/p>\n
Tsegay Girmay joined the pro-autonomy party (TPLF) in 2020, outraged at the “atrocities committed” by Eritrean troops and Ethiopian federal forces during their joint efforts to crush it in the bloody Tigray war.<\/p>\n
Six years later, the 32-year-old, like several other Tigrayans interviewed by AFP, is pleased that the movement is “on the verge of disappearing”.<\/p>\n
In late September, the TPLF joined other armed groups in an offensive to “overthrow” Ethiopia’s federal leaders but was quickly repelled by pro-government forces using drones.<\/p>\n
Forced out of major towns in Tigray, the TPLF has retreated to the region’s hills, where it occasionally attacks federal troops.<\/p>\n
In October, federal authorities formally took control of Tigray from the rebels, establishing a six-month interim administration and promising to organise elections.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe the TPLF has the slightest chance of returning to power. The situation on the ground shows it,” said Girmay, a resident of the northern Tigray town of Adigrat.<\/p>\n
After fighting with Ethiopia against the TPLF during the 2020-2022 war, Eritrea fell out with its neighbour.<\/p>\n
In October it deployed thousands of troops in Tigray in support of the party \u2014 until Ethiopian federal army drone strikes forced them to retreat.<\/p>\n
For many in Tigray, the TPLF’s recent alliance with Eritrea raised painful memories of atrocities committed by Asmara’s forces in the last war.<\/p>\n
Genet Hailu, a resident of the regional capital, Mekelle, said it was a “mistake” for the party to cooperate with Eritrean forces.<\/p>\n
“They committed massacres and sexual violence against Tigrayans,” she said.<\/p>\n
She said the TPLF had lost support both locally and among Tigrayans living abroad.<\/p>\n
“The party has distanced itself from the people,” she said.<\/p>\n
She condemned forced recruitment by the TPLF, documented by media including AFP, and by Human Rights Watch.<\/p>\n
“The party committed abuses against the very people who supported it and forced children to join the army,” she said.<\/p>\n
“As a Tigrayan mother, I cried, beat the ground in anger and cursed the TPLF, praying that it would never come back to power.”<\/p>\n
The party’s vice president, Amanuel Assefa, dismissed the criticism.<\/p>\n
“How can one explain that people reproach a party that is sacrificing itself for them?” he said in a response to AFP.<\/p>\n
The TPLF was once widely respected in Tigray, having led the rebellion that toppled Ethiopia’s military-Marxist Derg regime in 1991.<\/p>\n
The party then ruled the country until 2018, although the Tigrayan minority accounts for barely six percent of Ethiopia’s population.<\/p>\n
It was banned in 2025, several years after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power.<\/p>\n
Another former supporter, 35-year-old Natnael Gebregziabher, said he once believed in the TPLF, but now “mistakes by its leaders have put people in serious danger”.<\/p>\n
“It has become a burden to the people of Tigray,” he said.<\/p>\n
Others, however, remain supportive of the party despite opposing its alliance with Eritrea.<\/p>\n
Gebremichael Abebe, 52, a resident of the Tigray town of Axum, said he feared that “the current federal government wants to destroy us”.<\/p>\n
“I believe the TPLF will emerge victorious and return to power,” he said.<\/p>\n
For Kjetil Tronvoll, a Horn of Africa specialist at Oslo New University College, the party’s “future depends on several factors, particularly its capacity for self-reflection and how the federal government acts in Tigray”.<\/p>\n
He judged it was “too early to declare the TPLF dead”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once Ethiopia’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front is facing a backlash from former supporters in the northern territory as its latest offensive against federal forces falters. Tsegay Girmay joined the pro-autonomy party (TPLF) in 2020, outraged at the “atrocities committed” by Eritrean troops and Ethiopian federal forces during their joint efforts to crush […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"AFP","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,33,1129],"tags":[115,114,4790],"class_list":["post-22504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-politics","category-security","tag-eritrea","tag-ethiopia","tag-tigray-peoples-liberation-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22505,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22504\/revisions\/22505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}