The Ethiopian Parliament on Thursday endorsed the Council of Ministers’ proposal to designate Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) as terrorist organizations, reported Africa News.
The resolution was unanimously passed by ruling party MPs. Last Saturday, the Council of Ministers approved a resolution, declaring TPLF and OLA as terrorists.
The call was made amid frequent ethnically driven attacks against civilians and public infrastructures in several parts of Ethiopia, including the northern, northwestern, southwestern, and central parts.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has long dominated Ethiopian politics and until recently ruled the Tigray region. The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) group is active in the Oromia and Amhara regions.
The classification of the TPLF as a terrorist organization makes the prospect of peace talks in Tigray even more remote, six months after the Ethiopian army began a major military operation to overthrow the regional authorities there.
Ethiopia’s attorney general, Gedion Timothewos, said that ordinary citizens would not be affected by the new measure, while warning potential foreign countries to collaborate with the two groups.
In November last year, the TPLF forces attacked the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, killing soldiers while they were sleeping and looting military hardware, prompting the Ethiopian government to launch a military operation. On Nov. 28, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared the military confrontation over after the fall of the regional capital Mekele to the Ethiopian federal army. But TPLF leaders remain on the run and fighting persists.
The conflict has resulted in a serious humanitarian crisis in Tigray. According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), about one million people in the region are expected to have fled their homes because of the crisis. The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group also expressed concern on Wednesday about “alarming” levels of malnutrition among the population in Tigray.
