Getachew Reda - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

Ethiopia establishes Tigray interim administration as part of peace plan

ETHIOPIA has established an interim administration for the country's war-ravaged northern Tigray region, the prime minister's office said, a key step in the implementation of a peace agreement. As had been expected, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appointed Getachew Reda, the spokesman of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which led the northern region into war with the federal government in late 2020, as the head of the interim administration. Tens of thousands of people were killed and millions forced from their homes in the two-year Tigray conflict, which ended with a truce signed in Pretoria last November. The lack of…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

War of words over Tigrayan forces in Afar

NEWS

ETHIOPIA has claimed that rebellious forces from the Tigray region had been defeated in the adjacent Afar region and had withdrawn, but the Tigrayan forces said they had merely shifted troops to neighbouring Amhara for an offensive there. "The TPLF force has left Afar (region)," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dina Mufti told reporters at a news conference in Addis Ababa. "According to military information, they were defeated and they left," he said. Tigrayan spokesperson Getachew Reda, speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location, said the Ethiopian authorities had only now realised Tigrayan forces had withdrawn. "We were not…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Tigray forces enter neighbouring Afar

NEWS

DAWIT ENDERSHAW and MAGGIE RICK Forces from Ethiopia's northern Tigray region have mounted attacks in the neighbouring Afar region, a spokesman for Afar said on Monday, marking an expansion of an eight-month-old conflict into a previously untouched area. Tigrayan fighters crossed into Afar on Saturday and Afar forces and allied militias were still fighting them on Monday, Afar spokesman Ahmed Koloyta said. "Now (Ethiopian military forces) are on their way and we will work with them to eliminate (the Tigrayan forces)," he said. Getachew Reda, a spokesman for the Tigrayan forces, confirmed they had been fighting over the weekend in…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Cheers as Tigray forces seize regional capital

NEWS

GIULIA PARAVICINI and MAGGIE FICK TIGRAYAN forces said they had Ethiopian government troops on the run around the regional capital Mekelle after taking full control of the city in a sharp reversal of eight months of conflict. People in Mekelle, where communications were cut on Monday, said the incoming Tigrayan fighters were greeted with cheers. There were similar scenes on video footage from the northern town of Shire, where residents said government-allied Eritrean forces had pulled out and Tigrayan forces had entered. "We are 100% in control of Mekelle," Getachew Reda, spokesman for the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), told…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Tigray’s former rulers back in power

NEWS

GIULIA PARAVICINI, KATHERINE HOURELD and DAWIT ENDESHAW THE former rulers of Ethiopia's Tigray region has announced they were back in control of the regional capital Mekelle after nearly eight months of fighting, and the government which ousted them declared a unilateral ceasefire with immediate effect. Residents in downtown Mekelle reported seeing rebel troops in the city for the first time since they were driven out by government forces in November, and several described scenes of jubilation in the streets. The developments marked a dramatic turn in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, displaced more than 2 million and…