Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s government allegedly opened backchannel \u201cto avoid war and miscalculations,\u201d according to a federal military official. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official confirmed to AG the purpose of the back channel mechanism is solely to prevent military escalation during any potential flare ups in the long borders between rebel-held Tigray and the rest of the country. The Ethiopian government source claimed it is merely a \u201chumanitarian back-channel\u201d designed to prevent the pro-war TPLF hardliners from using minor skirmish \u201cas an excuse to restart war\u201d and block the flow of humanitarian aid into Tigray. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official did not specify who are the TPLF \u201cmoderates\u201d or how the communication hotlines were formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alleged existence of such hotlines to avoid accidental confrontation also suggests how overstretched and loose Abiy\u2019s federal military command has become, as it was increasingly dependent on informal local and regional militias to fight off the invading Tigrayan militia. It is also a recognition that Ethiopia\u2019s multiethnic military, which still includes ethnic Tigrayans in its ranks, is prone to defections and rogue activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics of Abiy\u2019s government say the recently formed \u201cpeace committee\u201d and its willingness to negotiate with the TPLF (that is designated by parliament as \u201cterrorist organization\u201d) is setting a dangerous precedent against the concept of building democracy in Ethiopia. Since the Abiy leadership started \u201cpeace talks\u201d with TPLF, dissidents and opposition groups in various parts of Ethiopia now increasingly view armed struggle as a better alternative for leverage than peaceful struggle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed\u2019s government allegedly opened backchannel \u201cto avoid war and miscalculations,\u201d according to a federal military official. The official confirmed to AG the purpose of the back channel mechanism is solely to prevent military escalation during any potential flare ups in the long borders between rebel-held Tigray and the rest of the country. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopia"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/awasaguardian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/82FBC1E7-3E8D-455B-A209-E3F07966FE9E.jpeg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":623,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awasaguardian.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}