(AG) The Afar Regional State announced it has began administering land in eastern Tigray that is settled by ethnic Afar but was annexed by the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) in the 1990s. 

Located in Saesi Tsaedaemba woreda of Tigray (close to Afar’s Dalul woreda) a district known by Afars as saawnae was long contested by local Afar people who repeatedly appealed for a referendum by the government but were rejected.

As the TPLF dominated the Ethiopian government for over a quarter of century, it was accused by various neighboring ethnic groups of annexing several lands that had either economic or strategic value. In many cases, including in Western Tigray, the TPLF ethnic cleansed territories and pursued massive resettlement of Tigrayans to change the demography of regions in its favor. 

The decade of peaceful appeals by Afar inside Tigray were ignored and the people physically persecuted, with the TPLF leaders, including WHO director Dr Tedros Adhanom, allegedly refusing economic safety-net programs and denying healthcare to Afar dissidents.

A zonal Afar security head Ibrahim Umed confirmed the disputed territory has now been officially reclaimed by Afar. He said his state is implementing multinational-federalism that was established by the TPLF but selectively applied. He accused the former TPLF rulers of running an oppressive unitary system that denied human rights and autonomy for non-Tigrayans inside Tigray.

This development coincides with the recent moves by the Amhara state that reclaimed Welkait region that was previously renamed “Western Tigray” by TPLF rulers. By introducing multinational-federalism (ethnic-federalism) system that designates every area in Ethiopia to a specific ethnicity; critics say TPLF has triggered perpetual land conflicts nationwide, even in places where multiple ethnic groups previously co-existed peacefully.

Before Amhara state took over Welkait last year, TPLF forces were accused of massacring around 1,200 ethnic Amhara civilians on November 9 in Maikadra; which remains the most gruesome atrocity to date of the conflict in Tigray. According to the Attorney General’s independent investigation, 48 non-combatant Tigrayan civilians have been killed by the ongoing conflict to date.