By Cara Anna
Nairobi: In a dramatic move two years after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has appeared on video from the frontline with the army fighting Tigrayan forces, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting reported.
In his latest attempt to rally all able Ethiopians to fight what he now calls an “existential war”, the 45-year-old leader this week announced he would go to the battlefront to direct the fight against rebellious forces from the northern region of Tigray and their allies.
Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, dressed in military uniform, speaks to a television camera at an unidentified location.Credit: PM’s office/AP
His government issued a new order aiming to restrict media reporting of the country’s year-long war, prohibiting the sharing of non-official information on “military-related movements, battlefront results and situations”.
The statement released on Friday AEDT, which applies to everyone in the country, also warns that “supporting the [rival Tigray forces] directly or indirectly in the name of freedom of speech should cease immediately.” And it strongly warned against calls for the formation of a transitional government.
Security forces would “take measures” against violators, it said, but didn’t elaborate.
Abiy’s government on Thursday warned the US against “spreading false information”.
Foreign media have been barred from Tigray for much of the war, with communications links severed, and both local and foreign journalists have been intimidated and harassed. The US and other governments have been urging their citizens to leave immediately.
People rally against the United States outside the US embassy in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.Credit: AP
Abiy was wearing military fatigues and speaking to the television station in the Afaan Oromo and Amharic languages from the north-eastern Afar region, according to the broadcast. Reuters could not independently verify exactly where it was filmed.
“What you see over there is a mountain that was captured by the enemy until yesterday. Now we have been able to fully capture it,” Abiy said, wearing a hat and sunglasses.
“The morale of the army is very exciting,” he said, promising to capture the town of Chifra, on the border between Tigray and Afar, “today”.
“We won’t flinch backward till we bury the enemy and ensure Ethiopia’s freedom. What we need to see is an Ethiopia that stands by itself, and we will die for it,” Abiy said.
The Tigrayan forces have threatened to push into the capital Addis Ababa or to try to cut a corridor linking landlocked Ethiopia with the region’s largest port.
US Special Envoy Jeffrey Feltman said this week that the Tigrayan forces had been able to make progress south towards the capital but that the military had beaten back several attempts to cut the transport corridor on the eastern front.
The spread of the year-old conflict into the neighbouring Afar and Amhara regions mean that 9.4 million need food aid as a direct result of ongoing conflict, the UN’s World Food Program announced on Friday. More than 80 per cent of those in need are behind the battle lines, it added.
“Corridors into Tigray had been closed due to the recent Tigrayan offences on Afar and Amhara, as well as severe disruptions in clearances from federal government. Since mid-July, less than a third of the supplies required ... have entered the region,” the organisation said.
Reuters, AP