The decision to freeze bank accounts of TPLF businesses came at a time when the Ethiopian government is launching ‘final military offensive’ in the north
borkena
November 17, 2020
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government announced Tuesday to freeze the bank accounts of companies belonging to Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
It is the office of the Federal Attorney general that ordered it. Thirty-four TPLF owned companies will not be able to access their bank accounts in the country.
According to a report by Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Sur Construction, Guna Trading, Trans-Ethiopia, Mesfin Industrial Engineering, Selam Transportation Association, Mega Printing, EFFORT Private Ltd, Ezana Mining Development, Mesobe Construction works, and meganet corporation are some of the companies whose access to their bank accounts is denied.
Alemante Agedewu is the Attorney general office director-general of the recovery department of criminally acquired wealth. He is quoted as saying that bank accounts opened in the name of the organizations listed above are under the freeze.
Why now? Government authorities claim they have got adequate evidence that the TPLF has been attempting to ship the money in their accounts to destinations outside of Ethiopia.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has been accusing the TPLF of financing and organizing violence in different parts of Ethiopia since he took office in April 2018 following a relentless countrywide protest against TPLF dominated government.
From the massacre in Benishangul Gumuz to Guji in the Oromo region of Ethiopia to Gura Farda in the southern part of the country, TPLF is said to be behind it. Even the assassination of Hachalu Hundesa, which caused the premeditated massacre of hundreds of people, mostly ethnic Amhara, in the Oromo region of Ethiopia is was orchestrated by the TPLF-OLF alliance, according to the Ethiopian government.
When TPLF took control of government power in 1991 in Addis Ababa, it did not have significant assets. The situation changed within a few years. A considerable number of former guerrilla combatants of the organization turned to millionaires. Relatives of key leaders including the late Meles Zenawi similarly turned out to be millionaires
The TPLF itself as an organization created a huge business empire in the country in banking, construction, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, mining, and export trade, among other sectors.
Sebhat Nega had an interview with VOA Amharic in 2009. He was CEO of The Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT), He said EFFORT created unprecedented wealth in the country and that wealth belongs to TPLF.
The business preferential policies, tax waivers, and loans from state-owned financial institutions without any collateral were among the reasons how TPLF leaders and relatives turned out to millions in no time.
On Monday Ethiopian government said that it is launching what it called a final attack on TPLF forces in the northern parts of the country.
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