Amhara regional state head, Temesgen Tiruneh, linked the suspects to Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
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borkena
July 23, 2020
The Amhara Regional State of Ethiopia said on Thursday that it has arrested 85 “forces of destruction,” as it called them.
Head of the regional state, Temesgen Tiruneh, said the arrested people were deployed in the North Gonder zone of the region with a mission to carry out terrorist activities by targeting infrastructures.
He also said that they intended to destabilize the region with the aim to make the region “a conflict zone.”
It was during the inauguration of infrastructure projects in the North Gonder zone that Temesgen Tiruneh disclosed the arrest of what he called “forces of destruction.”
“These anti-peace forces,” he said, “entered the region intruded to different areas of the region disguising as monks and mentally unstable persons.” And they were arrested, with tips from the local community members, before they carried out their mission, he added.
The region’s government claims that the plan was to assassinate prominent figures including political leaders, to destroy religious institutions and historical heritage sites.
Apart from that, regional authorities implicate TPLF in a conspiracy to bring about conflict between Amhara and Tigray people.
It is unclear if security authorities seized firearms from those arrested on alleged grounds of conspiring to bring about instability in the region.
Who are the “forces of destruction”?
Temesgen Tiruneh pointed the finger at “those who lost power because of the reform movement -TPLF group.”
They are working day and night to return to power, he said and called on people to foil what he called “their evil conspiracy.”
He also made a reference to the killing of Hachalu Hundessa in Addis Ababa which he portrayed as a conspiracy by Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to trigger inter-ethnic violence between Amhara and Oromo. But it failed, he said. The Oromo regional state and the Federal government hold a similar view in relation to the killing of the singer.
Temesgen Tiruneh called upon the Federal government to replicate its law enforcement actions in other areas too without naming names. Implicit in his remark seems to be a law enforcement action in the Tigray region of Ethiopia where people in ethnic Amhara people in Wolkait and Raya areas complain about recurring ruthless attacks from security forces in the region.
At this writing, TPLF did not remark on the arrest of 85 people with alleged links to the organization.
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