By Cara Anna, NAIROBI
Kenya
Ethiopia’s Tigray forces are joining with other armed and opposition groups in an alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to seek a political transition after a year of devastating war, organizers said Thursday evening.
The signing in Washington on Friday includes the
Tigray forces that have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces, as well as
the Oromo Liberation Army now fighting
alongside the Tigray forces and seven other groups from around the
country.
The alliance is forming as U.S. special envoy
Jeffrey Feltman is in Ethiopia’s capital meeting with senior government
officials amid calls for an immediate cease-fire and talks to end the war that
has killed thousands of people since November 2020.
The new United Front of Ethiopian Federalist
Forces seeks to “establish a transitional arrangement in Ethiopia” so the prime
minister can go as soon as possible, organizer Yohanees Abraha, who is with the
Tigray group, told The Associated Press. “The next step will be, of course, to
start meeting and communicating with countries, diplomats and international
actors in Ethiopia and abroad.”
He said the new alliance is both political and military.
It has had no communication with Ethiopia’s government, he added.
A spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Army, Odaa
Tarbii, confirmed the new alliance. When asked whether it meant to force Abiy
out, he replied that it depended on Ethiopia’s government and events over the
coming weeks.
“Of course, we prefer if there’s a peaceful and
orderly transition with Abiy being removed,” he said.
“The goal is to be as inclusive as possible. We
know this transition requires all stakeholders,” he added. But as for members
of the prime minister’s Prosperity Party, “there would have to be a process.
Many members would have to go through investigation, possibly be prosecuted”
for crimes related to the war.
The spokeswoman for the prime minister, Billene
Seyoum, appeared to address the new alliance Thursday evening when she tweeted
that “any outliers that rejected the democratic processes Ethiopia embarked
upon cannot be for democratization,” pointing out Abiy’s opening-up of
political space after taking office in 2018. His reforms included welcoming
some opposition groups home from exile.
The OLA spokesman in reply noted that some of
the people who returned to Ethiopia were later put in prison or under house
arrest. “A lot of goodwill was lost over the last three years,” he said.
Other groups signing on Friday include the Afar
Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Agaw Democratic Movement, Benishangul
People’s Liberation Movement, Gambella Peoples Liberation Army, Global Kimant
People Right and Justice Movement/ Kimant Democratic Party, Sidama National
Liberation Front and Somali State Resistance, according to organizers. -
AP
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