As peace restores to most of Tigray region of Ethiopia , normalcy is slowly returning to the region
borkena
December 16, 2020
After two weeks of war that demolished Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces that were anticipated to be strong, for the Ethiopian Defense Force, Tigray region is slowly returning to normalcy.
Guns are silenced almost in all parts of the region except in areas where disoriented and truncated TPLF force attempt to launch surprise attacks. Based on a citizen report on social media, there was such an attempt near the Korem area, South of Mekelle, but the forces were reportedly annihilated.
The region faced communication and power blackout after November 4, 2020, following that TPLF forces called preemptive attack against the National army — an incident that turned out to be a trigger for the two weeks war which came to an end, as government claims, when the army took control of Mekelle the last stronghold of TPLF leaders.
There was no banking service either which means that residents in the region had no access to their bank accounts. And that is still the case. However, electricity and water service resumed in most parts of Tigray region, including Mekelle city, after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday visited Mekelle where he met with commanders of the Ethiopian Defense Forces and Tigray region provisional administration over the next steps in restoring peace and reconstructing the region.
Yet, some pocket areas like in Alamata seem to have banking services too, according to the DW Amharic report.
Vital infrastructures to electricity and telephone services were damaged during the war as TPLF employed scorched earth policy which complicated the reconstruction work. There are still places in the region with no electricity and telephone services but the government says it is working relentlessly to address the issue.
The public service resumed this week following a call by the provisional Tigray region administration. According to an EBC report, head of the provisional administration, Mulu Nega (Ph.D.), made an unannounced visit to some government offices. Earlier this week, he warned that public servants need to return to work making the argument that the public service is neutral and should not take political sides. Those who failed to show up were to be considered as willful resignation.
In the interest of maintaining peace in the region, Mulu Nega’s administration also called for armed people to surrender their arms to a designated Ethiopian Defense Force body in the region. In Enderta, 500 militias willingly disarmed and surrendered to the Ethiopian Defense Force. The new administration has announced that a house to house search will begin to go after those who failed to surrender firearms, and it is starting this week.
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