Eritrea mobilizing retired soldiers to response to the conflict in Tigray

Eritrea has been criticised for its compulsory and decades-long military service (file photo)

NAIROBI, Kenya - Eritrea has reverted to deploying retired soldiers now serving as reservists to the Tigray region of Ethiopia as a reinforcement to Ethiopian National Defense Forces [ENDF], a top spokesperson of Tigray People's Liberation Front [TPLF] has claimed, as the war in the region enters a delicate phase.

Getachew Reda, the spokesperson of TPLF claimed President Isaias Afwerki was busy deploying retired soldiers to Tigray as he seeks "total control" of the region which has been at war with ENDF for the last 22 months, with both parties dragging efforts to initiate dialogue for reconciliation.

Those being mobilized to join the Tigray war, he claimed, are reservists who are 60 years old and above, but TPLF maintains it's ready to fight and rescue the region from being annexed by expansionists. Eritrea has been on spot for various atrocities committed in the Tigray region.

"Eritrea is calling up sixty-year-old reservists so Isaias, an 80year old tyrant, can realize his ambition of destroying a region, including the Eritrean state these sixty-something reservists fought tooth and nail to bring forth. That’s the mother of all ironies," he claimed.

The allegations could not be independently verified by Garowe Online but there is concrete evidence linking Eritrean troops to the ongoing war in the Tigray region. According to Reda, who is a former Ethiopian information minister, Addis Ababa has also been dispatching troops to Eritrea for training.

"The Abiy Ahmed regime is sending more troops to Eritrea, plane/truckloads of them every day," he claimed. "Preposterous as it may sound, the Addis Regime could have nefarious plans against Eritrea itself, not just against Tigray. The move defies ordinary logic."

There have been solid efforts to reconcile the two parties with the African Union offering to try dialogue. Although both sides have agreed, there is immense fear that the program will collapse because renewed fighting within the region could have dealt a blow to such plans.

Teferi Melesse, the Ethiopian ambassador to the United Kingdom, dismissed claims that ENDF was targeting innocent civilians through drone strikes, arguing that it was diversionary tactics to absolve TPLF from taking responsibility for stealing humanitarian aid.

"TPLF is propagating staged dramas that gov’t drones are targeting civilian facilities. It is appalling to see this garner more attention than TPLF's theft of humanitarian supplies and fuel, massacre, and destruction in the Amhara and Afar regions! Truth is the victim in this conflict," he said.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is persistently under pressure to embrace a ceasefire to allow dialogue but he maintains that TPLF should take responsibility. Ironically, Abiy Ahmed was the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2019, and the war back in his country has to some extent vindicated his critics.

GAROWE ONLINE