Col. Demeke Zewdu, Deputy Head of Security for the Welkait Tegede Humera region, told local media the United States government is “indirectly at war” with Ethiopia due to its multifaceted support for the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) rebels and their Sudanese, Egyptian backers. His statement came after US added sanctions and US embassy recently admitted some of its “high energy” food aid has been used by TPLF soldiers, who are committing atrocities while invading Afar and Amhara regions. Several top independent analysts, including US-based Atlantic Council’s Bronwyn Bruton, have suggested some Western governments had already been “widely perceived” to be indirect “combatants” and participants in the Tigray conflict.
Col. Demeke was a leading figure in mobilizing people of Welkait community for democracy and equality, after the TPLF renamed their region “Western Tigray” in the 1990s and resettled tens of thousands of ethnic Tigrayans to change the local demography there. He was arrested several times over the years for his nonviolent advocacy and tortured by TPLF rulers in prison, but released in 2018. After the TPLF triggered the war in November 2020 and its subsequent defeat in “Western Tigray,” Col Demeke was appointed by government to lead the northern Amhara security forces.
According to local media, Demeke blamed Western political support to TPLF for weakening the resolve of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government “to be tough on TPLF.” Similarly, various independent analysts claimed Egyptian-Sudanese military incursions and demands against Ethiopia’s hydroelectric “GERD” dam (in which the US backs Cairo) also played a role in diverting most Ethiopian military resources away from Tigray. In the absence of the federal army, Abiy has depended more on regional forces and local police for security.
Col. Demeke said his local security forces have “repeatedly engaged and defeated” Sudan-backed Tigrayan fighters who tried to re-enter thru Humera and other towns in the Western border; even during the same week a top US foreign policy advisor Samantha Powers praised Khartum and visited the Sudanese side of the boundary. The Colonel added that his forces have evidence of the various IDs of Sudanese POWs captured for helping TPLF as well as UNHRC Identification tags given to Sudan-based Tigrayan refugees turned fighters who invaded Ethiopia. In July, the Financial Times (FT) had confirmed reports that up-to 30,000 TPLF soldiers were trained in Sudan and attempting re-entry.
Explaining to the media, Col. Demeke condemned recent US sanctions against “anti-TPLF coalition”. He said economic and military sanctions against Ethiopia and Eritrea, while continuing multibillion dollar US military and financial aid to Sudan and Egypt is America’s “indirect” war on Addis Ababa, and amounts to an all-around support for TPLF rebels.
The Ethiopian Colonel added that he is not surprised US State Department downplayed recent atrocities by TPLF, as the West was silent for decades before as well.
Col. Demeke, who is believed to have half-Tigrayan relatives himself, said he was also “disappointed” that some US officials went as far as accusing his forces of “ethnic cleansing” Tigrayans, and suggested such controversial western statements as being part of America’s diplomatic support and justification for TPLF rebellion. He instead accused the West of worsening the conflict in Tigray and blamed TPLF leaders of starving innocent noncombatant Tigrayans by diverting food aid to feed their soldiers.
US AID director Sean Jones in Ethiopia recently admitted western humanitarian aid was in fact being looted by TPLF rebels, but he was forced to walk back his comments the next day, after US State Department pointed blame at the Ethiopian government.
